Teddy Lupin: The Wolf, the Witch, and the Wraith
by Resa Aureus
Summary: It's Teddy Lupin's final year at Hogwarts. Everything gets knocked askew the moment a new kid nearly kills a boy in a duel on the Hogwarts Express and then convinces the entire train car to lie about it ever happening. This is Book One in Teddy Lupin's story and it's going to be WILD. ON HIATUS. WILL NOT BE ABANDONED, I PROMISE.
1. Puff Flu

A/N. Welcome to Chapter One of Book One of my Teddy Lupin series :) These books will be pretty lengthy, probably around normal novel length, but there won't be nearly as many as the real Harry Potter series. This is mostly canon, and when it isn't I will put a little note or it's explained.

Enjoy!

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Chapter One: The Puff Flu

Platform 9/3 was absolutely packed from wall to wall with families and carts and familiars scampering, loping, and flying away from their witches and wizards. Little kids ran after the animals and were showing each other spells they learned over the summer and squeezing their parents tight, promising to return home for holiday. Parents were teary-eyed and more anxious than their children, but sent them on their way up onto the Hogwarts Express, waving farewell before the train could even start moving.

One Teddy Lupin was having an especially hard time shaking off his own guardians. It was like this every year, he thought with an eye roll. You'd think they'd get used to him going away after seven years, but alas his grandmother and Aunt Ginny held on tightly to him on both sides like a Metamorphmagus sandwich. His Uncle Harry was standing by with an amused smirk at how Teddy's hair was flickering between every color of the rainbow in embarrassment at the two older women clinging to him for dear life in front of his friends and girlfriend.

"Come on, guys," Teddy groaned, feeling his neck get sticky and wet from their tears. "I'll be back for Christmas before you know it. Aunt Gin, you should be harassing James right now - it is his first year, after all."

"I tried, but he ran away from me," Ginny Potter sniffled, crushing Teddy's ribcage. He had a distinct feeling that her sorrow had a lot to do with the fact her son abandoned her and less with it being Teddy's final year at Hogwarts.

The warning whistle blew.

"Grandmum…Gin…I need to get on the train now. If I miss it, I'll have to call Uncle George about that flying car and we all know that won't be pretty," Teddy said, using his secret weapon. No one wanted to see that car resurfaced ever again but they all new that one call to George and he'd be there with the thing faster than you could say "Wingardium Leviosa."

Both women reluctantly released and Harry gave Teddy one last firm pat on the back. "You'll do great, Ted. Your father and mother would be so proud of you."

Teddy thanked his godfather and heard his girlfriend, who was only a year behind him, exclaim, "Teddy! We're going to miss the train!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he chuckled. She was already on the steps to the train. He jogged to catch up to her, waving behind him to his family as he went. He blew one last kiss to his Grandmother Andromeda and entered the train which was now as busy as the platform was.

"Now it's going to take forever to find a seat," Victoire complained, muttering to herself in French. Teddy and Victoire had started dating in the summer and he was beginning to learn she was obsessed with punctuality and order. Apparently, she was a lot like her mother that way. That and the bossiness.

But Teddy put up with it because he deeply cared for the girl. She was beautiful, with curly ash blonde hair that she kept at the same length at the center of her back constantly, never longer and never shorter, and pretty light blue eyes. She was also smart, a Prefect, and a foot-in for Head Girl next year. And while she was a Ravenclaw, she had the cunning of a Slytherin - when she wanted something, she got it. It was just how it was. She knew how to use her smarts and looks to her advantage and wasn't afraid to. But other than that, she was caring and organized and a good French kisser, Teddy thought with a grin.

"Your hair is bright pink," Victoire observed curiously. "What exactly are you thinking about?"

"Nothing in particular," he said with a shrug, not wanting to say out loud that he was thinking about snogging her senseless the moment they found an empty cabin to sit in for their long ride.

"Hey! Ted! We saved you space, mate!" James exclaimed, poking his head out of one door. "Ditch the girl and get your arse over here!"

"Oi! You're bloody eleven! What would your mother say if she heard you talking like that, eh?" Teddy called back. "She'd box your ears worse than your Grandmum Molly, she would!"

Victoire was preoccupied by three girls that came barreling towards her, enveloping her in a herd of embraces and squeals that Victoire gleefully took part in. These were her roommates, Teddy recognized. He knew they'd want to catch up, so Teddy said, "Victoire, I'm going to keep an eye on the first years, yeah? You have fun with your friends."

She just waved in acknowledgement, so excited to be jumping up and down and reuniting with her friends. Ted shrugged, smirking, and walked over to James's cabin. Ted was shocked to find his best mates in there with his "little brother" James.

"Ted!" Parker White said, jumping up to hook his arm around Teddy's neck and put him in a headlock. His Irish brogue was strong and loud, declaring, "I missed you, you Technicolor pigmy puff, you!" Parker was tall and lean, but had muscle fit for the best Beater in Hogwarts and Gryffindor was lucky to have him. Parker's straw blonde hair had grown to his neck since the last time Ted saw him and his brown eyes were glittered for mischief, as always.

"Parker, Ted's lips are turning blue," a mild, lilting Irish accent, from the corner of the cabin commented lightly. "What did I tell you about murdering friends? It's improper."

"Oh, Freckles, he's just doin' that on purpose, love, trying to make me go easy on him, " Parker told his sister, who was in the same year as Victoire. She had the same straw blonde hair as her brother, always pulled back in a ponytail and pretty hazel eyes, her face covered in freckles. Her given name was Ophelia, but everyone just called her Freckles because she was covered in them. And from the days the White family took Teddy to the beach, he knew she had them on her elbows, her knees, and her back - but it kind of worked for her. They just belonged on her like feathers belonged on a Hippogriff.

Parker continued roughing up Teddy's now ice blue hair, saying, "Your little gift won't be gettin' you out of this one, mate!" He finally released Teddy's neck, only to put them around his thin waist and squeeze hard enough to make Teddy regret eating breakfast that morning and spun him around in the little amount of space.

"I don't know whether or not to laugh or be stunned by the fact that murdering your companions is a common enough occurrence that your sister needs to remind you not to," the boy sitting not far away from Freckles said with a smile. He had a book in his lap, as he usually did.

"Oh, my dear Abe. Lovely, darlin' Abraham," Parker said affectionately, dropping down beside him. "Fear not. We've shared a room for more than six years now. If I haven't killed ya yet, it's not bound to happen soon."

Teddy let out a light cough, rubbing his neck and stomach from the rough greeting from his friend. Parker was the best friend a bloke could ask for, but he definitely didn't know how to love lightly. He loved you until it hurt…literally. Teddy and him used to get in rows all the time and be evenly matched until on summer, before fourth year, BAM, those Beater muscles came out of nowhere.

James, who'd been sitting across from the older boys and Freckles, said, "Where's Bowie?"

Bowie, the youngest White, was James's age and supposed to be starting his first year, but he was nowhere in sight.

"The wee fella is so nervous he's already gone to the bathroom three times since we got on the train," Parker said with a full laugh. "He's been all arseways since he woke up this morning."

"He's worried about the Sorting, naturally," Freckles chimed in. "He feels that because Parker and I are Gryffindor, that he should be too. We've told him it didn't matter which House he was in, we'd still love 'im the same and take care of him."

"And let's face it, he's not looking promising for Gryffindor anyways," Parker said. "The boy's as cowardly as they come."

"Parker! Our brother isn't cowardly!"

"Freckles, he cried to our Ma this morning, begging her not to make him go," he said bluntly, raising an eyebrow challengingly at his sister. "That certainly isn't something a 'brave of heart' would do, now would it? He's more of a badger, I think."

"Hufflepuff is a perfectly respectable house," Abe put in.

"Your only saying that because all the girls from the 'Puff House are loony over you."

With a grin, Abe didn't deny it. He was a bookworm-ish type, his dirty blonde hair wavy and thick. He was tall and thin, he jogged around the Black Lake every morning before breakfast, and he was chivalrous. He even took a Muggle Theater class as an elective a couple years back, a class only Hufflepuffs took, and gave a monologue from a Shakespeare play that made every girl in the room, and a select few boys, swoon. Mild and kind, Abraham Collin had girls tripping over their feet for him, but he never paid them very much attention which only made them want him more.

"Hufflepuff," Ted said with a smile, "is the House they had to have for all the miscellaneous types. After you pick out the brave, the cunning, and the intelligent, what's left?"

"You all are terrible!" Freckles declared. "Plenty of wonderful, successful people come out of Hufflepuff. Professor Sprout was a Hufflepuff and she was in the Order of the Phoenix."

"Yeah, but there are really no famous Hufflepuffs," Teddy said, thinking about it. "Are there?"

They all drifted off, thinking about it deeply, going through famous all the famous wizards they could think of.

"Janey Mack," Freckles said in disbelief and disappointment. "There really isn't any famous Hufflepuffs. That's so sad."

Abe, Parker, Teddy, and James all started laughing at that. In part because of the Hufflepuffs and in part because Freckles never said "Janey Mack" - that was always Parker's thing. She almost never used Irish slang, mostly because she knew how difficult it got to understand her brother when he started forgetting he was around Englishmen.

Finally, the door to the cabin swung open, and there stood a nauseas-looking boy with gold-ish hair and a light dusting of nose freckles.

"You're looking a little green, brother," Parker said, sounding mostly amused instead of concerned.

"I don't like trains," the boy said simply, walking over to sit next to his friend James. The two eleven-year-olds had gotten on swimmingly since they met a few years back at the Burrow when the Weasleys invited the Whites over for a picnic and they'd been penpals ever since. They wrote a lot about Quidditch and books and girls, occasionally.

"Oh, Bowie," Freckles said, shaking her head sympathetically.

"I think he's got a case of the 'Puff flu," Parker said with an evil grin.

Bowie groaned loudly and dragged his hands down his face. "I don't want to be a Hufflepuff!"

"You'd meet a lovely girl there," Freckles said, trying to give the obviously doomed "'Puff", as Parker called them, a bright side. "Hufflepuff girls are known for their maternal, homely qualities. They made lovely wives, I've heard -"

"Ophelia!" Bowie whined. "I'm ELEVEN. I'm not LOOKING FOR A WIFE, I just don't want to be a feckin' PUFF!"

Parker and James were laughing uncontrollably, and Ted and Abe were having a hard time holding back their own chuckles at the boy's outburst. Especially when Freckles reached across to flick her younger brother hard on the ear.

"If Mum heard you swearing, you'd be dead," she chided.

Rubbing his abused ear, Bowie slumped in his seat with a scowl on his round face, remaining silent.

Finally, changing the subject, Parker said, "Ted, my boy, how's your bird? Where's your bird, actually? Pretty thing, fine bit of stuff, wouldn't mind seeing her in her uni again -"

"Oi! Parker, that is my girlfriend you're talking about," Teddy said, teasingly firm, but really he didn't mind. He knew his girlfriend was the fittest girl in school - being part Veela did that. Before he and Victoire were together, Parker was always telling Teddy to hurry up and ask her out or else he would. It was all fun and games, Teddy knew, because Parker could never tolerate a girl longer than one-and-a-half dates on Hogsmeade weekends. (That story about the half-date was rather hilarious and had quickly become Parker's claim to fame ever since their third year).

"Well, can you blame me?" Parker said good-naturedly. "Looking at her makes me want to speak French, she's so gorgeous."

"You don't speak French," Abe pointed out.

"Then she makes me want to _learn_ it."

Teddy groaned. "Please don't ever say that in front of her, ever. She's been nagging me to learn French for ages."

"Why don't you?" Freckles asked.

Teddy scowled and answered, "Too girly. If she were, say, Russian, I'd be there in a heartbeat."

"Thinking about Russian," Abe jumped in, "story in the grapevine is that Loki Vargstrom's sister is transferring from Durmstrang this year."

"Loki Vargstrom has a sister?" Parker said with wide eyes.

"And she's coming to Hogwarts?" Teddy added in, just as shocked.

"Story is she's his half-sister and her name's Ronia. Apparently there were some…issues back at Durmstrang with her…condition."

"Is she ill?" Freckles inquired.

"No," Abe said with a smile to Teddy. "She's a werewolf."

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Rate and Review! PLEEEASE.

~So Long And Thanks For All The Fish~


	2. The Train Incident

Chapter Two: The Train Incident

"No way!" James exclaimed, beaming. "That's so cool! Just like your dad, Ted!"

"She's a full werewolf?" Teddy clarified. "She goes through the Change?"

"That's what everyone's saying," Abe said with a shrug. "But, hey, Hogwarts gossip has been prone to exaggeration. So how much of it is and isn't true is yet to be confirmed. By the time I got on the train, everyone was whispering about her, saying that they saw her and everything. It's like she's a ghost - some people claim to have seen her and others thinks she's a myth. Poor girl probably just wants to finish her education without any fuss, but she's walking into a hotbed of rumours."

"Yeah, she's probably terrified out of her mind," Freckles said with a sad shake of her head. "And the gossip sure isn't going to help any."

"I wonder if she's hot," Parker said absently.

"Jeez, Parker!" Teddy said incredulously. "You seriously have a one-track mind, don't you?"

Parker shrugged and held his hands up innocently. "It was an honest question! I'm just thinking that if she's good-looking, maybe the rumors will be less about her condition and more about her body."

"Yeah, sure, that's exactly what you were thinking," Teddy said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Honest, it was, I -"

There was a big crash and a yell out in the hall of the train. James was quick to poke his head out the door. The trolley hadn't come around yet and everyone had their heads out the doors of the cabins to observe the ruckus.

Right in the middle of the hall, someone was on the ground, hexed and dazed. Standing not too far away from James's cabin was the culprit, a young woman with her wand drawn and fixed onto the boy on the ground.

Everyone else in Teddy's cabin was quick to look out the door themselves. Teddy was shocked to see the girl - not because she'd obviously just hexed the boy so hard he wasn't getting up, but because of…well, the way she looked.

The girl was on the tall side for a girl, her body forming a slender hourglass, dressed in a pair of worn leather trousers and a long-sleeved maroon shirt. Her face was what drew attention to her, though. She had short dark brown hair that was cut into choppy layers, just covering her ears, and mixed in from her roots were random strands of silvery grey. Her bangs, which were long and uneven would normally cover her brow and shadow her eyes, but once she raked the locks back with a pale hand, her saw them. The scars. They started from her right temple, in her hairline, and crossed down through her brow and eye, diagonally, and stopped at the corner of her mouth, having brushed the side of her nose and creating a permanent crease in her nostril and lip, and bald spots in her one sharp eyebrow.

Even with the jagged scars, Teddy saw she was an exotic kind of beauty with high cheekbones, an aristocratic nose, and Slavic features. Her lips, despite the law on the right side, her full and pale pink. Her skin was alabaster and her eyes, even from a distance, glittered like amber. Teddy couldn't even begin to guess what her genealogy was, but it was a good mix.

The boy who'd been hexed got off the ground painfully and lifted his own wand which had fallen feet away from him. A duel commenced.

The people in the cabins were cheering, even the prefects were turning a blind eye at this excitement, and people were making bets.

"Five Galleons on the bird in the leather breaches," Parker said eagerly.

James chimed in, "Deal. He'll win. Just watch."

"I don't know…" Teddy said slowly. The way the girl was whipping out hexes and shields without a single word, in rapid succession, her wand movements blurring but precise…she was definitely an accomplished duelist and was not afraid to deliver pain and defeat. Her deadly calm expression was almost the scariest part. Not a flinch, not a wrinkled brow or nose, no grunts of effort or clenched teeth. She looked…murderous.

"I'm raising the bet," Teddy said, never moving his eyes away from the duel, sparks and lights flashing right in front of him. "Ten on the girl."

"Fine," both James and Parker agreed in unison.

"I'm in and I agree Potter for this one," Abe said. "That's Benny Moss. I have Defense with him and he's known for holding out until the very end of the duel. The second he sees the slightest weakening in his opponent, he takes them down brutally. He's very good."

"Yes, but I wouldn't reckon as good as this girl, here," James countered. "It doesn't look like she'll ever weaken."

"Everyone weakens at some point."

James was doubtfully shaking his head. "I dunno…"

With one huge blast of static, the hex flew into Benny, throwing him back into the wall before he plopped back onto the ground, still twitching before fainting, his hair sticking up on end like he'd been struck by lightning.

There was a long, drawn out silence before everyone on the cart busted out into applause and cheers, everyone exchanging money and clapping. Everyone was very impressed. Benny Moss was good at dueling, he wasn't easily beat.

"I know who I'm inviting to DA this year," Teddy said, smiling broadly. Ever since Dumbledore's Army had served it's purpose when Harry Potter was at Hogwarts during the Second Wizarding War, it continued as more of a tradition, it's official name being the Dueling Club. But even the Head Mistress called it Dumbledore's Army on occasion. Teddy was the club president and he was the one who discussed with Headmistress McGonagall who got to be formally invited - it was a very elite club.

James looked disappointed, but handed over his coins and as did Abe.

There was a new commotion in the hall, though.

Hollering over all the cheering was a very familiar voice.

"What House are you in?" the voice commanded very authoritatively.

The hall grew quiet and the boys went to see what was happening. Teddy had been right about the voice - it was his Victoire, in full-on Prefect mode. She looked angry and trying to seem in-charge, but it was obvious after that little duel who was really the more powerful on the train.

"I am not Sorted," the girl with the scars said. She had a light accent, slightly…Russian.

Oh, shit, Teddy thought in surprise. This is Loki's half-sister the werewolf!

"That's ridiculous," Victoire said, giving a delicate sneer. "You're obviously at least a Sixth Year. I am a Prefect, tell me what House you belong to."

"I am a new transfer," the girl, Ronia, said. "I came from Durmstrang. I'm assuming you've heard of it?" Ronia was obviously mocking her, but without so much as a blink.

Victoire's scowl strengthened. "Of course I've heard of it!" she said indignantly. "Then, your name, what's your name?"

"Ronia Vargstrom."

Victoire stiffened. The name had been circulating around the train that she had to have heard of it. Even now, all the bystanders of this confrontation all whispered eagerly and anxiously to one another.

Victoire started looking around, not willing to get in a fight with a werewolf, even if her father was part one. "Where are the Head Boy and Girl?"

A Prefect reluctantly said, "On another cart."

"Well, go get them! They'll want to hear about this!" Victoire commanded. The other Prefects always did what she said because they believed she was going to be Head Girl the next year and that held merit. Nose in the air, Victoire turned to face Ronia Vargstrom. "You'll be lucky if you aren't expelled once we inform the Headmistress of this."

"I'm not even a student yet," she girl pointed out, her chilling amber eyes fixed onto Victoire. "How are they going to expel someone who is not a student?"

"You'll be a student the moment your Sorted and the second you are, I am going to deduct as many points as possible from your House and then hand you to the Headmistress. Benny will say everything you did to him and you'll be back on a boat to wherever the hell to crawled from," Teddy's girlfriend hissed.

"I think the decision to testify lies in Benny, yes?" she said, pointedly nodding to where Benny Moss was slowly picking himself up off the ground.

"Whoa…" Benny groaned, rubbing his head. "My mother was right…"

Nonplussed, Victoire said, "What about your mother?"

Picking himself off the ground, Benny held onto the wall to steady himself. "She always said I needed to tie my shoe laces or one day I was going to trip and crack open my head. She was right."

"_Shoelaces_?" Victoire screeched. "You were in a duel, you fool!"

Benny laughed. "No, I wasn't."

"Do you hear that?" Ronia said, her expression still the same. It was not smug or telling, just composed. "He wasn't in a duel, after all."

"Everyone saw it!"

"I didn't see any duel," Ronia said with perfect innocence. She looked around at everyone. "All I saw was you jumping out and screaming at me when I was about to change carts to look for the trolley. Did you guys see any duel?" she inquired of audience.

A lot of kids didn't do anything, but plenty of kids who had all been subject to Victoire's overly-strict, power-abusing Prefect moments - which was a lot of kids - all shook their head, playing along and muttering, "What duel? What is she talking about?"

A little smile played at the corner of Ronia's marred lips. "See? Perhaps you bumped your head as well? Should we find you a Healer?" she asked Victoire.

"_AGH_!" Victoire shrieked in frustration and starting shouting in French, the fowl words being obvious, spitting at the girl in utter fury. She brandished her wand and Ronia stood completely still while Victoire threatened her.

"Weasley! What are you doing to the new student?" the Head Boy asked, finally arriving.

"_She took part in a duel and hexed Moss to unconsciousness_!" Victoire shouted, never removing her wand from its focus on Ronia.

"There was a duel? On the train?" the Head Girl said, astonished. She looked around for confirmation.

A lot of the kids continued the innocent act.

"I didn't see anything…"

"Must've been an awful quiet duel, because I slept right through it."

"There was no dueling of any kid, really."

"Unless you count Victoire's screeching and threatening the new girl a 'duel'."

The Head Boy looked to Benny Moss. "You didn't take part in a duel?" he asked, one last time.

Benny shook his head, having absolutely no recollection of it. "No, mate. Just tripped and fell, I did. Woke up to Weasley making a ruckus."

Both the Head Boy and Girl looked to Victoire very disapprovingly, crossing their arms. Victoire, who was so godsmacked by this turn of events, was near tears.

"Can we have a word with you for a moment, Weasley?" the Head Girl said, nodding to the next cart. Reluctantly, Victoire followed, knowing that no one was going to believe her.

The train car got really quiet, but everyone eventually ducked back into their cabins and all closed the doors, wanting to discuss what just happened without being caught in their collective lie when the Heads came back.

Parker was the first to speak up in their cabin. "Janey Mack…your bird is going to be in big trouble."

"I know," Teddy said, still dazed by the entire thing. He wasn't sure how to process it.

"Well, you should go stand up for her!" Parker said.

"No one would believe him," Abe said, crossing his legs, deep in thought. "Everyone knows they're dating and they'll assume he's lying for her, especially when an entire train car of kids will tell a different story. Including both of the kids that were supposedly in a duel."

"What do you mean 'supposedly'?" Freckles demanded. "There _was_ a duel."

"My dear Freckles," Abe said condescendingly. "I have no clue what you are talking about. As far as I'm concerned, I saw nor heard any duel, nor did I make a bet with my mates on who would win. However, I did see poor Benny Moss trip and fall over his untied shoelaces and Victoire Weasley threaten the new girl. That is all."

Freckles's jaw dropped. "I cannot believe you're playing along with that girl's lie!"

"There's no choice," Abe said. "Teddy can't stand up because no one will believe him. None of the other kids - especially not the Prefects - will either because they all don't want to be caught in the lie they already started. Parker can't because he could get banned from Quidditch for not getting help, Bowie and James can't because they're First Years and no one will care and all the older kids will make their lives Hell for it. And finally, I can't because no one will believe me and I do not care enough to bother."

With a grimace, Freckles said, "_I_ could always tell the truth."

Abe shook his head. "But you won't. We have a code here, do we not? You and I turn a blind eye to whatever rubbish Teddy and Parker get themselves into and occasionally assist. When I catch Teddy and Parker, I never deduct points and neither will you now that you're a Prefect. It is a code of honor and loyalty to whatever shenanigans that goes on among us, and this counts. We keep our mouths shut because if we don't, we're traitors."

Shaking her head and closing her eyes, Freckles dropped her head into her hands with exhaustion. Everyone was pretty exhausted after all of that. The duel. Victoire losing her head. The new girl convincing dozens of kids to lie for her without batting a single eyelash. It was crazy and a lot to think about.

"Victoire is going to be pissed," Teddy muttered into the silence.

Parker said, "You know she's going to somehow blame you for all this, right?"

Teddy Lupin heaved a large sigh. "Yeah, I know."


	3. Late Nights with a Werewolf

Chapter Three: Late Nights With a Werewolf

Every time a First Year was entered into Hufflepuff, the table of yellow and black squealed with excitement and welcomed them in with a hug. Every there was a Ravenclaw, the table adorned with blue would all lift their heads from their books for a moment with applaud and stand to make room for the newcomer. For every new Slytherin, the green and silver table all clapped lightly, their noses in the air, a rare smile here or there. And for every incoming Gryffindor, those in red in gold all hopped up from their benches to cheer and roar and stomp on the floors excitedly.

Parker and Teddy were both waiting nervously for their little brothers, and Freckles, sitting directly across from them beside Abe, was trying to look confidant for Bowie, but that was hard to maintain when she was biting her fingernails. It was a nasty nervous habit that she was always trying to kick, but it was proving impossible. Abe just kept reading his book, enthralled by whatever the pages were saying.

Finally, there it was, the first of the brothers.

Headmistress McGonagall read from her parchment with a small smile, "Potter, James."

A lot of people watched, riveted, as the son of the Chosen One walked up to sit beneath the Sorting Hat. The Hat hummed pleasantly.

"Another Potter, I see," it mused delightfully. "This is far too easy, of course…It would be a shame to break the tradition…GRYFFINDOR!"

Teddy was the first to his feet, his hair blinking a tie-dye of colors, shouting and whooping with the rest of his House for gaining another Potter, a celebrity in his own right. Teddy waved his honorary brother over excitedly, making room between him and Parker for him. Immediately, the people around them were all introducing themselves to James, who was beaming at the welcoming. His father and mother would be so proud when he wrote to them about this.

A few more kids went up, all being Sorted, some looking excited, others not so much. Until finally…

"White, Bowie."

Parker dropped his head to the table, hiding his face with his arms. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph - I can't watch."

His sister smacked the back of his head from across the table. "Head up! Support him, you plonker! You're his big brother!"

"This is going to be a bleeding disaster," Parker moaned. "I just know it."

When Teddy looked up, Bowie was sitting on the chair and the hat was being lowered onto his head. Still biting her nails, Freckles looked up to her gentle, sensitive little brother who looked like he was going to vomit.

The Hat said, "The honorable house of White, yes? Ten generations of courageous wizards with your blood have worn me and been Sorted…You are different, though…"

"Fuck," Teddy heard Parker mutter into his arm, still burrowed into his elbows.

The Hat continued. "I think I know where to put you…yes, that's right…HUFFLEPUFF!"

"OH, SHIT," Parker and James both shouted at the same time, barely heard over the exciting squeals of the badgers on the opposite side of the room. Bowie was dragging his feet over to him, glassy-eyed and disappointed.

Even Freckles looked rather upset, clasping her hands together and pressing them to her mouth. She shut her eyes and it looked like she was praying - which she probably was. She stayed like that for a bit while the Sorting continued and ended. She only stopped her praying when Headmistress McGonagall paused for a bit to get everyone's attention.

"I realize that the Sorting is traditionally reserved for First Years," McGonagall said, her voice filling the room. "But we are privileged and honored this year to welcome a new student from across the continent! She has transferred here from Durmstrang Institute, our brother school from the East. Please welcome, Ronia Vargstrom!"

A lot of people were clapping, some more enthusiastic than others, but a fraction of the students were hesitant to be "welcoming" for two reasons. One, they'd heard about the train incident. And two, there was an obvious relation between this girl and the infamous Slytherin Loki Vargstrom.

Teddy looked across the Great Hall to where Loki always sat. The kid was average as far as looks go - shoulder-length dark, wavy hair, dark eyes, and a slightly crooked nose. His mouth was wide and he had a sharp jaw line. He was tall and had broad shoulders, though, and a thick brow. And most of all, his aura was…dark.

Ronia had been standing at the back of the room, but now, with her head high and her shoulders back, she strode down the center aisle, exuding the perfect amount of don't-fuck-with-me-because-I'll-fuck-up-your-brain. She walked up and sat on the stool, waiting for the hat.

"_U vas yest` interesnye uma_…" the Hat said, which made the girl smile.

"I didn't know the Sorting Hat spoke different languages," Freckles said curiously.

The Hat continued, "_Vy mozhete otnosit`sya so zmyeyami , no budet protstevetat` so l`vami…_GRYFFINDOR!"

For the first time that night, the Gryffindor table did not celebrate the Sorting.

…~oOo~…

Walking out of the Hall after that massive feast, the group of Gryffindor friends were dreading the confrontations they would have to make.

Teddy was terrified to see his girlfriend after the train incident and had been studiously avoiding her and was actively thanking Merlin that she was a Prefect who had duties and was in a different House.

None of them wanted to go to their common room, because they're new Russian student would be there.

So it looked like the White children family reunion was "up to bat" as the Americans would say.

Seeing his little brother through the crowd, Parker took a deep breath and then forced on the biggest smile he could manage, running toward Bowie with put-on enthusiasm, bellowing happily, "ME BROTHER'S A 'PUFF!" Be tackled his brother around the waist and lifted him up, spinning him in circles, right there in the middle of the crowded corridor. "I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WAS GOING TO BE A 'PUFF! Freckles, love, tell him how I always said he was going to be a Proud 'Puff!"

Freckles put on an equally large - albeit fake - smile, saying, "You always did say that, Parker!"

"Yeah, to make fun of me," Bowie said with red-rimmed eyes. "You always said it mockingly."

"NO, Bowie, you've got it all wrong! My silly, 'Puffy, brother you!" Parker tousled his brother's hair playfully. "All that we said about Hufflepuffs, we was just getting you all riled up! We were playing a prank! I always knew you'd be a 'Puff so I told all of them to make it sound dreadful, to make you all nervous! Isn't that right, mates?"

Abe and Teddy both readily nodded, playing along with Parker's charade.

"See! We was just messin' with you! Classic Hufflepuff!" Parker said with a hardy laugh. "Don't you see, Bowie? You are the first White in ten generations to not be Sorted into Gryffindor! You're special, one of a kind! You could very well be the reason for diversity and interhouse unity amongst our children and our children's children!"

At the sound of that, Bowie's expression slowly changed from miserable to doubtful to thoughtful to enlightened and happy. A smile lit up the boy's found face and he nodded, "I guess you're right, Parker! Thanks!" And then he gave his brother a big hug.

Not used to any sort of friendly affection that didn't involve him breaking someone's bones, Parker awkwardly patted his little brother on the back and distinctly mouthed the word "'Puffs" with an eye roll. Teddy smiled at his friend for doing this for his brother, but James still looked bummed that he wasn't going to be able to share a dorm with his friend now.

"Well, you best be off, brother!" Parker said, smiling broadly. "You have to get back to your new dorm, meet all your 'Puff friends, get a yellow and black uniform…Oh! And of course, you gotta write Ma and Da the good news!"

Nodding enthusiastically, Bowie said his farewells and ran to catch up with his new House.

"Puffs are so gullible," Parker growled to himself.

"I'm very proud of you, Parker," Freckles said, patting her brother's shoulder. "You do no the real reason he didn't want to be in Hufflepuff right?"

"Because they're a House of a bunch of sensitive, flighty, cowardly little buggers," Parker grumbled.

"No," Freckles said softly. "He didn't want to be in Hufflepuff because he didn't want to disappoint _you_."

"Don't be daft."

"No, really! He knows Ma and Da would be thrilled no matter where he's put, and the same for me, but you…you're his big brother, best Beater Hogwarts has seen in decades, proud Gryffindor. Parker," she said gently with a smile, "your approval means the world to him because, well…you're his _hero_."

Parker thought long and hard about that and finally gave the hint of a smile. "Huh."

"Yeah. 'Huh'." Freckles beamed at her brother and walked ahead towards their common room. James followed close behind. Ted and Abe gave Parker a few hard pats on his shoulders and they went on as well.

The Gryffindor common room was a mess of confused First Years, luggage strewn everywhere, reuniting friends, and summer gossip. Plenty was said about Ronia Vargstrom, who apparently hadn't shown up to the common room yet. Teddy heard whispers saying something about her being in the Headmistress's office and he wondered if maybe anybody had come forward about the train incident.

Figuring he could put off seeing his girlfriend until classes the next day, Abe, Parker, and him all went up to their old dorm. James had run off to find a bed with people he could tolerate in the room.

The room was bare, but the second all three flicked their wands, their trunks busted open and all their clothes started packing themselves into drawers, posters stuck themselves to the walls, extra pillows arranged themselves on the beds, and their uniforms were hung up and pressed for the next day.

All the boys jumped onto the beds they'd had for years now. Originally there was a fourth person, but in the middle of second year, the boy moved out because Teddy, Abe, and Parker never slept.

Teddy was lying on his stomach, cracking open a box of licorice whips while Parker was making sure his Quidditch posters were straight and Parker was crouched on the floor, prying at the dummy floorboard that had been left closed all summer, hiding their stash beneath it. Eventually Abe just tapped his wand to it and it popped out, saving his fingers from splinters, and Abe popped open the cork to their aged bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey.

"I say we have a toast, to our last first day of school, ever," Abe said, getting out the little glasses that were nestled up against the rest of their alcohol stash.

"I thought we were saving that for our last last day of school ever," Parker said. "Not that I particularly care, I always thought that rule was bollocks. It's not like we don't have a shite ton of other Firewhiskey down there."

"Yes, but this is _aged_. And it should be kept for celebrations," Abe said.

"Whatever. Just hand me a glass."

Teddy chuckled and when they all had they cups, they waited for Abe to say something.

"Why do I always have to be the one to give a speech?" Abe asked, realizing that they were both staring at him expectantly.

"Because you're the wordsmith, mate," Teddy told him. "Merlin knows I'm not poetic and Parker lacks the competence to put more than a full sentence together at a time."

"Oi!" Parker snapped.

But Teddy and Abe laughed, assuring their friend that he was plenty competent. Teddy continued, "Come on! Show us that reading all those books has gotten you somewhere."

"Yeah," Parker joined it. "Say something that'll make me get all soft in me middle and cry."

Abe said, "Alright," and he climbed up to stand on his bed in bare feet. "Okay. Ahem," he cleared his throat. "There comes a time in every young wizard's life -"

"Now he just sounds like McGonagall," Parker moaned.

"You two were the ones who were making me do this, so belt it, and listen to my speech, dammit!" Abe snapped, chucking a one pillow at each of her friends' heads who just sniggered but shut up. "As I was saying…Oh, shit, I forgot what I'd been saying…Very well, I'll start over…" He took one more deep breath. "When I first saw the both of you on the Hogwarts Express, my thoughts came in this order. One: Holy fuck, I have no clue what this Irish bloke is saying. And two: Holy fuck, that was not that guy's hair color three seconds ago."

Both the Irish bloke and the hair-color changer laughed heartily at that.

But Abe continued, "But a year later you were so much more than the Irish kid that spoke like he had marbles in his mouth and the Metamorphmagus. You became my mates and the most important people I had in my life. And, okay alright, Parker, you were still the Irish kid with marbles in his mouth, but at least you were the Irish kid with marbles in his mouth with the fit sister."

"OI! WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY ABOUT MY SISTER?"

"I digress," Abe said, smirking and trying not to bust out into cackles at Parker's bright read face. "And here we are, years later. Teddy has snared a beautiful girlfriend, Parker has about seven girlfriends and me…well…I have a fan club, affectionately named the entire house of Hufflepuff, so you can both blow on that. To youth, mischief, and Gryffindor!"

"To youth, mischief, and Gryffindor!" all the boys chorused together and knocked back their glasses, all wincing at the burn of their throats.

Parker cleared his throat and said, "So…what is it that you just said about my sister?"

…~oOo~…

Parker and Abe had eventually passed out together, on the same bed, much to Teddy's amusement. And from what they all learned the hard way from camping trips, Parker was a notorious snuggler. In the middle of the night, he will invariable gravitate towards the nearest warm body to curl up against and hold all night.

Let's just say Teddy got a picture of the most perfect blackmail he could have ever gotten on his friends. He smiled to himself as he walked down the dorm stairs to the common room, hoping to pilfer a Hangover potion from someone's luggage lying around for the next morning. His buzz was wearing off, but he knew his brain would be thudding by morning.

He had not been expecting to find a girl lounging across the couch in leather pants and a maroon shirt, holding a bottle of what looked to be Muggle beer in her hand, facing the burning fireplace. So he and his friend's hadn't been the only ones drinking, but this girl, Ronia, didn't seem to be drinking for celebratory reasons. She was wallowing alone and drinking. That was never a good combination.

"It's impolite to stare."

Teddy gave a little jump. The girl's gaze had not moved from the fire and he had been very careful to tread softly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize you heard me come down," he said quietly, walking towards the sitting area she was in. He stood a safe distance away. From what he saw on the train, she was handy with a wand, and to be frank, he liked his willy where it was and didn't want to lose it just for impinging on this girl's territory.

"I heard your heart beat," Ronia said as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "And you smell like a pub."

From this angle, the fire lit up her light skin, throwing shadows into her scars, and setting her topaz eyes ablaze. The flames were mirrored and glittered there.

"Oh," Teddy said, scratching the back of his head, slightly chagrinned. "My mates and I were celebrating."

"I know," she said casually. "I heard all of it."

Teddy's face got really warm and it wasn't because of the fireplace. "You did?"

"Mmhm," she hummed simply. "I may have to warn you. Girls are not flattered by having their 'knockers' - as your Irish friend so fondly calls them - compared. Just a friendly heads up."

"Thanks," he mumbled uselessly. He hesitantly sat down in the arm chair across from her and she made no move to hex him or yell at him or anything. She stayed perfectly still like a statue.

"Do boys really have sex with as many girls as they say they have?"

Teddy felt his eyes get huge and his eyebrows must have disappeared into his hair. "Uh…"

A small corner of her mouth tipped up ever so slightly. "Just curious. Inquiring minds want to know." Her accent was barely there, not nearly as strong as it was when she was conning the Head Boy and Girl on the train.

"Um. I g-guess," he sputtered. "I, personally, can't speak for all boys, that is…but I never lie."

"Oh, you lie," Ronia said matter-of-factly. "Maybe not about the girls you've 'shagged', but you lie. Everyone does."

"I like to think being a Gryffindor means I have a higher respect for honesty," he answered.

"Gryffindor or not, everyone does. You may not be particularly good at lying, but that's never stopped anyone before."

"Are _you_ good at lying?" Teddy asked, already knowing the answer.

But she called his bluff easily. "You were on the train today. You tell me."

How was she so sure he'd been on her train car? "There were dozens of -"

"Yes, but only one whose hair changes color." Now turned to him and gave a smile, a small one, but a real one. "And…I can smell the wolf blood in you."

Teddy blinked.

"Of course, you aren't a werewolf, but I'd bet the left side of my face that your father is."

Teddy couldn't believe it. Ronia was looking at him and smiling - not maliciously or sarcastically, just…softly.

He found himself nodding. "Yeah. Well, he _was_. He died before I was a year old."

"I'm sorry," she said, her smiling falling, but not going back to the stony face she had before. Deep in her eyes was a glimmer of sympathy.

"You may have heard of Remus Lupin?"

"War hero, yes," she confirmed with a nod. "He was your father?"

"Mmhm. Died saving the wizarding world," he said with a hint of pride. "My mum too."

"That was a very noble, brave thing for them to do."

Teddy paused uncomfortably.

"Do you not agree?" she asked with a raise of her sliced-through eyebrow.

"No, I do," he quickly amended. "It's just…sometimes I think… I dunno." He looked down at his hands.

"Sometimes you think that if they had an infant at home whom they supposedly loved, why would they risk their lives by leaving you with a sitter and going off to war, knowing fully well the consequences. With them knowing that you could be an orphan by morning, growing without ever knowing your mother or father, the wonderful witch and wizard that everyone tells you they were, but never get to know for yourself?" she said softly.

Whoa. "Do you read minds by any chance?" Teddy asked, kind of terrified that she'd pronounced every line of thinking he had in his head as if she'd read it like a textbook.

Her small smile returned and she said, "No. I just know what it's like to lose a parent."

"Your mum or dad?"

"My mother," she answered. "She was an Auror. I was barely a month old when she returned to work, saying that all she needed to do was do her part to retrieve the last confirmed alive Death Eater before she could sleep at night and be a good mother to me. She left and she never came back. Died helping capture that last Death Eater. My father packed Loki and I up and brought us back to Russia."

"Your mother…was she English?"

Ronia said, "Half. Half-English, half-Scandinavian." She paused for a second, looking deep in thought. "I've never talked to anyone like this, about her. Maybe I'm drunk." She observed her bottle and shrugged.

"If you're drunk, you certainly don't seem it," Teddy said.

"Well, that's good. I'd hate to burst into tears, slurring and taking my clothes off. I would hate to scare you off." Ronia gave him another gentle smile. "Although, I'm afraid that I already have without being intoxicated."

"How would you have scared me off?"

"Maybe because I'm telling you my childhood sob story and I barely know you. Maybe because I'm a werewolf. Maybe because of these." She reached up to touch the jagged lines on her face. "It would be more than enough to scare most people off."

"I'm not most people," he assured her.

Ronia gave a delicate snort and said, "Thank God for that." Then she swung her legs down and stood up, throwing back the last of her beer. "Thanks. And…goodnight." She turned and took her time making her way up to the girls' dorms. To this day, Teddy is unsure of whether or not that night had been a dream or not.


	4. Better Luck with the Giant Squid

Chapter Four: Better Luck With the Giant Squid

Dragging Parker out of bed had been Hell. Abe, always the scholar, was full prepared to pick himself up from the very comfortable bed where Parker had been curled around him like a bloody vine in order to get to classes. Park, however, was quite content with missing their very first day of classes.

Teddy was tired and hungover and ready to kill, so when Parker went on moaning about getting up, he flipped out his wand and hissed, "_Aguamenti_!"

Suddenly awake and sober, Parker sprung up, sputtering and furious. He jumped from the bed, ready to tackle Teddy to his death, but Abe lazily cast a petrifying hex and said with a yawn, "Now I remember why we were going to wait until the end of term to drink that bottle. Hangovers, Parker, and classes."

Nodding in agreement, but then regretting it because it rattled his brain, Teddy pulled off his nightshirt and flannel pants, leaving himself in only his boxers. "I'm going to the showers. I need a nice cold one. Hopefully it'll wake me up."

Teddy left the room and Parker melted from his frozen hex and immediately decided he was too tired and too sore to chase after Ted or wring Abe's neck.

Abe, smirking, pulled off his shirt and said to Parker, "Hey, cuddle bunny. Like what you see?" Abe turned and wiggled his bum tauntingly and made kissy faces at his friend.

Parker said, sounding exhausted, "Shut the fuck up and get out of me way. You're blocking my trunk with your junk."

With a last wiggle of his bottom, Abe very slowly got out of the way and received a playful smack on his bum and a shove away from Parker's trunk. Abe laughed loudly and Parker considered strangling him.

"My sister's not here to save you, so you better watch it, Abraham," Parker said darkly, yanking out his uniform and glaring at his mate.

"Thinking about your sister…"

"Abraham, I swear to the Mother of God and all that's Holy that if you say my sister is fine one more time I will not stop at charming your hair green, understand?"

"No, I wasn't going to say it in so many words…but I was just curious as to what you would say if I…you know, asked her out. The first Hogsmeade weekend is in a month and if it'd be alright with you…"

Parker was frozen. "You're joking, right?"

"Um…no."

Looking around the room suspiciously, he asked, "Is there someone hiding, waiting to take a picture at my reaction?"

"Um…no."

"A trip wire that's going to dump something on me head?"

"No, I just want to ask your sister on a date."

For a long, drawn out and quiet moment, Abe counted it as a victory that all him limbs were still intact and Parker's face was normal color.

Until Parker launched himself at Abe, bellowing, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

…

Walking back up to the dorm, Teddy gave pause when he heard the yelling and screaming and crashing in his dorm. While this was not an uncommon occurrence for the three boys' room, Teddy was concerned about the fact that when Parker had just woken up, he's kind of like the Hulk. He's quick to anger and when he's really pissed off…well, he goes SMASH to the closest person or thing within his reach.

Needless to say, Teddy sprinted the last steps up and threw open the door to find a dresser toppled over, clothes exploded everywhere, something pink and sticky dripping of the ceiling from a stray hex, and Parker and Abe in one of the most intense rows Teddy's ever seen.

Parker didn't have a want, but Abe did, even if it wasn't doing him very good because Parker was giving his mate a good muggle-fashioned beating. Throwing him around, tossing him into walls, punching him and tackling him. It wasn't pretty.

"Stop!" Teddy shouted, and when the two still went at it, he cast a body-binding hex that held them both still, but allowed them to talk. "What's going on?"

"He! Freckles! Hogsmeade! Kill him!" were the only words Parker could articulate along with a lot of expletives.

"He's being an arse because I wanted to ask Freckles on a date and asked for permission," Abe said, scowl in place even through his body wouldn't move.

Teddy looked at Abe with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one. Do you have a death wish?"

Abe huffed. "I was being considerate, thank you, and I certainly didn't expect him to go all mental on me."

"How did you _not_ expect that, exactly?"

"Wishful thinking, I suppose?"

"And it's not like it matters anyway," Teddy said to the both of them. "Doesn't Freckles already have a boyfriend?"

Both boys went quiet and still - well, they were still under the hex, but yeah - and stared at Teddy with strange expression.

"Teddy…remove the hex," Parker said very calmly.

"I'm not so sure if that's a good -"

"I SAID TAKE IT OFF," Parker roared.

Hesitantly, Teddy flicked his wand and mobilized both boys.

Parker demanded, a murderous look in his eyes, "What's his name? House? Does he play Quidditch?"

At the same time, Abe was asking furiously, "Is he smart? What level classes is he in? Is he older or younger than us?"

"Mates!" Teddy said, holding up his hands to blockade the inquiry. "I have no idea! All I know is that she has one!"

Without another word, Parker marched out of the room, still practically naked in only hos boxers, and Abe and Teddy exchanged a look.

"Did you only tell him that so that he'd get distracted from beating on me?" Abe asked.

Teddy shook his head. "No. She really does, I heard her tell her friends about him."

With that, Abe was in Parker's wake, also half-naked in his boxers and unbuttoned shirt, tie draped loosely around his shoulders.

The girl's dorms were about to get quite the show this morning.

Teddy hurried after them, hoping to maybe soften some of the impact that the boys were about to make.

Parker was exactly where Teddy expected to find him. Standing at his sister's bedroom door, rapping his knuckles insistently on the wood.

Freckles wrenched open the door, her hair a rumpled mess, and still in her undershirt, skirt, and with bare feet. She looked almost as murderous as her brother, with literal steam coming out of the sides of her head. That happened when she was angry.

"You idiot! It's six o' clock in the bloody morning! What are you doing, making so much noise, it's giving as all a damned headache!" she went off like a cannon on him.

"_Since when do you have a boyfriend_?" Parker shouted, his face beet red.

From under her freckles, a blush rose on his sister's face. "How do you know about that?"

"SO IT'S TRUE!"

"Oh, shut your gob, you fool!" she shouted back at him. "It's none of your business!"

"_Of course it's my business_!"

"It's _not_! Now, shut up and up the yard with you!" she shouted, pointing away from her door and trying to slam it shut, but Parker's hand was there, forcing the door to stay open.

The other girls in Freckles room were torn between horror and giggling. The best Beater in the school and the cutest was standing there in only his pants with the beautiful and smart bookworm Abe half-naked right behind him.

"Tell me his name! You have to tell me his name so I can ask around about him!" Parker demanded.

"No! You'll just hurt the poor boy!"

"Oh, so he's a pansy-ass 'Puff then, yeah?"

"No! He's a Slytherin, you buffoon!"

Every drop of blood drained out of Parker's face and Abe looked positively godsmacked. Teddy had to admit that he was pretty shocked too. Sweet, little innocent Freckles was dating a slimy, sneaky Slytherin? That made absolutely no sense. He always internally imagined her ending up with Abe, to be honest. They both loved books and had really great debates with one another - they were a perfect match. But now Parker was going off the deep end, Abe wasn't too far behind, and all Teddy could do was enjoy the show.

"YOU'VE BEEN SNOGGING A BLOODY SNAKE!" It was only half of a question, but Parker roared so loudly that the hinges on her door shook.

Crossing her arms, Freckles said smugly, "Yes, I have. And he's very nice."

"Nice…?" Parker was dumbstruck. "_Nice_? He's evil by association, dammit! You will break up with him, TODAY."

"I WILL NOT, PARKER CUNNINGHAM WHITE! NOW YOU WILL MARCH OUT OF THE GIRLS' DORMS THIS INSTANT BEFORE I VANISH YOUR UNDERPANTS SO EVERY GRYFFINDOR GIRL CAN GET A NICE VIEW AT YOUR WILLY! OUT! NOW!"

Okay, it's been confirmed, Teddy thought to himself. Freckles and Parker are _definitely _related.

…~oOo~…

Breakfast was spent with Abe and Parker both looking darkly across the Hall, raking their gazes through all the boys at Slytherin.

"You can give that up," Freckles informed them calmly, sipping her tea. "I've already told him to pay special attention to not look over at me."

Both their glares were then fixed on her.

Teddy sighed and continued eating his breakfast. Well, if coffee and seven strips of bacon could be properly considered "breakfast". And while his mates were glaring at Freckles and the Slytherins, Victoire was glaring at him from the Ravenclaw. The only ones having a good morning were James and Bowie who were making funny faces and waving their hands ridiculously at one another. They were handling the House separation well, Teddy thought, that's good.

Rolling into the Great Hall late was none other than Ronia Vargstrom. Of course, loads of kids came to breakfast late, she just was the most noticeable. Especially when she was sporting a variation on the uniform.

Girls were required to wear skirts. Boys were required to wear slacks. Well, Ronia wasn't wearing either. She was wearing another pair of leather pants and ankle-high boots. She was wearing the long-sleeved white shirt and tie, though, even if the tie was really loose and the white shirt sleeves rolled up to her elbow.

At the Ravenclaw table, Victoire was glaring and looked like she was itching to deduct points, but she stayed seated which was strange, Teddy observed.

Ronia was as expressionless as ever, walking over to the Gryffindor table when Freckles waved the Russian girl over excitedly, repositioning so that there was room for the new girl to drop down.

What was happening?

"Morning, Ronia," Freckles said brightly. Ronia didn't reply. "This is my stupid brother Parker and his idiot friend Abraham. You may recognize them from being in the nip outside our room this morning. Oh, and this is Teddy. The only Gryffindor boy I can possibly stand this morning."

Ronia gave an acknowledging nod to them all, her gaze lingering a little longer on Teddy which made him think that maybe the night before hadn't been a dream.

"And this here, the First Year whose having a jolly time of making faces at my brother in Hufflepuff is James Potter," Freckles continued.

"Ah," Ronia said, crossing his arms on the table, getting comfortable despite the fact that dozens of eyes were honed on her. She was at least acting oblivious. "Potter. Son of Harry Potter, I presume?"

"Yep," James said, drawing away from his game with Bowie for a moment with a smile. He liked it when people mentioned his father because it made him proud to be the Chosen One's son.

"Cool," Ronia said with a slightly impressed nod. Then again, every emotion she gave was "slight".

"Why's your uniform different?" James asked, looking her up and down.

At this, Ronia smirked, but it never touched her glowing eyes. "I have a deal with the Headmistress."

"McGonagall?" Teddy said, surprised that the strict Headmistress was making deals about anything, especially uniform.

Ronia nodded.

"What kind of deal?"

"Part of the deal is that I cannot say," Ronia said with a shrug. "I hate skirts."

Honestly, in Teddy's mind, he couldn't picture her in one anyway. She was for too…badass. It just didn't fit her.

Parker finally decided to join the conversation, "So how do you like it here? Compared to Durmstrang, of course."

"So far it's very different, but once we get to classes today, I believe I will see the true difference. I have Dark Arts class first thing, so it will be…interesting," Ronia said slowly, reaching across to a basket of fruit on the table and plucking out an apple.

"Don't you mean _Defense Against _the Dark Arts class?" Parker said, his brow furrowing.

There was that barely-there smirk again. "I mean what I said."

"Wait," Teddy said, pulling out his schedule. "We Seventh Years have DADA first thing…but you're a Sixth Year…"

"At Durmstrang we have only six years total. I am advanced," she said with a shrug. "They put me with the Seventh Years."

From what I heard Durmstrang was really strict and had high tolerance for Dark Arts, so he was…worried, to say in the least. He'd already seen her duel better than he could on the train and having her in a class that was made for defending oneself against evil spells while she was at a school that taught her how to cast said evil spells…well. It was nerve-racking to have to be in the same class as her.

For now Teddy was going to treat Ronia as a ticking time bomb.

Freckles joined in, "Ronia is very smart. Her satchel had an undetectable extension charm on it."

"My aunt had a beaded purse with one of those on it," James said, beaming. "It's so, so cool. She can pack our entire picnic into a tiny hand purse. It's awesome."

Teddy smiled. Good old Aunt Hermione. Thinking of which, he said, "Did Aunt 'Mione take the Defense job? Our schedule doesn't say who our professor is going to be."

"Last I heard, they were still trying to straighten that out," Freckles said with a shrug. "The job's jinxed, they don't have anyone willing to fill it anymore. It's quite pathetic. They should just invite back Professor Weasley."

Teddy was shaking his head fervently. "Nuh-uh! Victoire _hated_ it when her dad was working here. Back then she and I were only friends, but she would make my life absolutely miserable over it."

"I always hoped they would ask my mum," James said. "Now that she's done playing on the Holyhead Harpies, I mean, she's a powerful witch, right? And a war hero." His eyes lit up at the prospect of his mum working at Hogwarts.

"Maybe they'll ask her next year when this one bottoms out, mate," Parker said. "Or maybe they could ask Abraham's da. He's…downright terrifying. Isn't that right, Abe? Your dad is scary as fuck?"

Abe didn't answer, but continued glaring at Freckles.

"Oh, for God's sake, Abraham!" she finally snapped. "Will you quit your scowling? Much more and your face is going to get stuck like that!"

No answer from Abe, just more glaring.

Having enough, Freckles threw her hands into the air with a huff and said, "Come on, Ronia. We better go get our robes for the day. I've had enough of these idiots."

Without a word, Ronia followed the annoyed Irish girl out of the hall, her apple in hand.

"She's pretty hot, ain't she?" Parker said, watching Ronia's bum as she left. "Think she'd go on a date with me?"

Teddy snorted and rolled his eyes, but Abe looked up at his friend with wide, mockingly-hurt eyes. "But…love…I thought we had something special," Abe whimpered tauntingly.

"Shut up, you arse. I'm being serious. Teddy, what do you think?"

Teddy said, "I think you have better luck with the Giant Squid."

…~oOo~…


	5. The New Professor

…~oOo~…

Chapter Five: The New Professor

On their way out of the Great Hall, Parker, Abe, and Teddy were all brooding over something and were mechanically making their way to their first class of the day. However, Teddy would have to let his mates go ahead of him, because out of nowhere a tiny, manicured hand reached out for the sleeve of his robe and yanked him aside. His friends barely noticed and just kept walking.

Teddy was only slightly relieved when he saw it was his girlfriend. And she did not look happy.

"Do you have any idea what's happened in just the last day?" Victoire started, sounding angry but composed, her hands on her hips. "That werewolf bitch got me in so much trouble that I'm suspended from Prefect privileges! The Headmistress is furious with me, I've got dirty looks from Slytherins all of yesterday, and on top of it all my boyfriend is avoiding me!"

Teddy decided he should play dumb and innocent. People took pity on dumb and innocent. "What? _Nooo_, I wasn't avoiding you!"

"You, Teddy Lupin, are the lousiest liar I know," she hissed.

At that, Teddy felt his face get warm from the memory of last night, of Ronia saying, _You may not be particularly good at lying, but that's never stopped anyone before_. He decided to just continue with his charade, after all it couldn't get any worse. "I've been busy! It's the first day of term after all! Not everything I do and don't do revolves around you, Victoire."

He immediately regretted those words.

"_Excuse me_?" she said, her cotton-candy pink, glossy lips dropped into a perfect, astonished "O". "I am your _girlfriend_, Teddy! You're supposed to _make _time for me!"

"Oh, like you 'make' time for me?" Teddy said, feeling his hair turning darker as his anger flared. "Come off it, Victoire, I'm not your servant and you barely pay any attention to me. All this summer, you could barely spend time with me because of your silly friends getting your nails done or whatever. So I am so sorry if I took a day away from your unending drama to get settled in for term! Now, excuse me, I'm going to be late for Defense." And with that, he turned around and walked away.

"This conversation is far from over, Ted Remus Lupin!" Victoire called furiously from behind him. He made no indication that he heard her, too frustrated to care.

Every word he'd said was true, of course. Victoire was queen of the dramatics, even if she was a Ravenclaw. She was being unfair and he didn't have the patience for her antics, not on the first day of classes.

He was worried enough about Defense class.

When he got to the DADA classroom, everyone was settling in and waiting for their new teacher to reveal themselves. The room was empty so far and a lot of people were wondering if there even was a professor for the year.

Teddy sat in between Abe and Parker, who still didn't know whether to be angry at each other or the nameless Slytherin dating Freckles, and took out his book and parchment. It was a pretty rambunctious class, between the Gryffindors and Slytherins, each on separate sides of the room, but equally eager for the class.

Then the door opened up and a lot of people gasped.

The man was tall, thin, and had a face made of angles. He looked to be about his mid-thirties and had platinum blonde hair growing long and pulled back into a short ponytail resting against his neck.

Teddy recognized him right away.

It was his second-cousin Draco Malfoy. The blonde man marched right up the aisle, barely glancing at his class, and to the board at the front of the room. With a flick of his wand, the chalk started writing on the board his name and the course title.

"Welcome, everyone to Defense Against the Dark Arts. You've all been here before, I'd hope," he said with a small sneer. "I am Professor Malfoy and by Merlin, you all better make this year easy for me. Profess-…I mean, _Headmistress_ McGonagall was desperate, hence the reason I stand before you."

The previously excited class now got very quiet. They'd been hoping for an awesome last year of Defense, not getting an ex-Death Eater who was only here because he owed a few favors. This was going to suck.

"Normally this is the part of the class where the teacher asks you to say your name and some other rubbish like your 'hobby' or something equally ridiculous, but I could honestly care less what your name is or if you think Quidditch is 'super cool' because Thaddeus WhateverHisLastNameIs looks so 'fit' in his uniform, understand?"

There were a few sniggers from the Slytherin side of the room, but their professor acted like he barely noticed.

"I, however, am someone you should be familiar with. So listen closely while I tell you about myself, because I will not be repeating any of it. My name is Draco Malfoy, but I swear if you ever refer to me by anything other than 'Professor Malfoy' I will rip the tongue from your mouth and give it to Slughorn to use for his First Years' potion class. I normally work at the Ministry in the Department of Mysteries, but I have been unfortunately reassigned, obviously.

"Now, I know that I have a reputation as an ex-Death Eater and Pureblood supremacist, but in my classroom I will not tolerate the misuse of Dark Arts or any petty bullying between classmates. Ted Lupin, feel free to write your family I said that later, I'm sure they will be _shocked speechless_, which will do them some good, I believe."

There were a few giggles, including from Teddy himself who knew all about Malfoy's history of being the biggest bully Hogwarts has seen in a long time. Teddy's Uncle Harry would always shake his head when his name came up and begrudgingly say that he deserved to be pardoned for his crimes as a Death Eater, seeing as he was raised by psychos.

Draco clapped his hands together and said, "Now. Let's get one with some learning. I'm sure you're all thrilled to be getting a lesson from day one, but I don't dally. Everyone get up from your seats, you're all pathetic sitting there, looking like a flock of pox-infected hens."

…~oOo~…

All the Seventh Years flooded out of the classroom in a daze.

"Whoa…" Abe murmured, walking beside his friends who all had dreamy expressions and wide eyes.

"Janey Mack…" Parker agreed in the same hollow voice.

"Yeah…" Teddy nodded, knowing exactly what they meant.

"That was the best bloody Defense class we've ever gone to, isn't it?" Parker said, a smile stretching across his mouth. "It was…actually interesting. I didn't feel like falling asleep at all! Look at me eyes!" He pointed towards his bugging eyes enthusiastically. "Not even a bit droopy!"

Letting out a chuckle, Abe said, "I'll agree with Parker for this one. That was brilliant. I can only hope every class is like that."

"I dunno," Teddy said, doubting it. "He probably was just giving us the fun stuff so he can slack off later. I wish my dad were alive. Uncle Harry says that he was best DADA teacher ever."

"Lupin!" a voice called from behind them. All three friends turned and Professor Malfoy was standing in the door of the classroom. "May I have a word with you?"

Teddy internally groaned. He had gone to family gatherings with just his Grandmum 'Dromeda, Narcissa, Malfoy and his wife now that old Lucius was in Azkaban and all. He didn't particularly like Draco, mostly because he never said much of anything and his wife was a bitch. Or at least, she used to be his wife. Andromeda said they went through a pretty nasty divorce earlier in the year.

Teddy walked back to the classroom and followed his cousin inside. Draco took a seat at his desk and Teddy stood in front of it, waiting.

"I wanted to ask how Aunt Andromeda is doing. My mother has been pestering me to ask about it ever since they had that…interesting confrontation at the last family dinner," Draco said, considering his words carefully, but with wry amusement.

Ted remembered that dinner like it was yesterday, even though it was almost a year ago. Aunt Narcissa, always so calm and collected knew how to deliver blows with the face of an angel while Andromeda was loud and animated and liked to yell. So the combination of the two was quite entertaining to watch when they got into a row. Narcissa sat there, nice and cool, while Andromeda was up from her seat, throwing things and waving her wand threateningly.

"She's good," Ted answered with a shrug. "The woman's a riot and in the 'prime of her life' as she fondly calls her midlife crisis." He was grinning widely at the thought of his much adored grandmother.

Even Draco smirked at this. "My mother is much the same, only I imagine she may be more low-key than Andromeda. My mother wanted to make a peace offering of Christmas dinner at the Manor…" He sighed. "The invitation extends to the Weasley and Potter clan, of course. She feels like she owes them for testifying in our favor at our trials."

"You kind of do."

"Mother was the reason Potter lived to defeat the Dark Lord. I don't think we owe him or his jolly crew of Weasels anything."

"Well, gee, you better not be like that at Christmas," Teddy said, raising an eyebrow. "One might not consider such praise welcoming."

"You know, Ted…I like you," Draco Malfoy said, leaning forward on his desk, crossing his arms. "I would have liked you more if you were a Slytherin, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. And I know next year, whether Scorpios is a snake like I expect him to be or a damned badger, I can count on you to take care of him. So I'm going to give you some advice."

Teddy waited respectively. Malfoy sat back in his chair and kicked his feet up to rest on his desk.

"Seeing that your father was a werewolf, you have certain characteristics that a normal person would not pick up on, but are there nonetheless. And certain people can detect those characteristics," Professor Malfoy drawled.

"You mean…like my smell?" Teddy said.

"Correct. Which means that a specific new addition to the Hogwarts population will be able to smell it on you."

"You mean Ronia Vargstrom," he said, once again filling in the blanks.

"Yes. Miss Vargstrom has extraordinary senses and runs purely on instinct. So as we get closer to the full moon and smells the blood of a wolf in you…well. Chances are she'll instinctively perceive you as a threat or competition and come hunting for you during her Change. My advice is to stay as far away from her as possible. She may just look like an innocent little girl, but she _is_ dangerous." He hesitated. "And I know your father would be telling you the same thing if he were here. Your mother of course would be telling him to shut the hell up and pressuring you to befriend the girl, but that is neither here or there. My point is, stay away and stay on your guard."

Teddy nodded and said, "Thank you, Professor."

"And if you would see it fit…outside of the classroom, you - and _only_ you - may call me Draco. It's a bit silly to be calling family by their surnames and titles."

Smirking, Teddy said, "Alright, Draco. Thanks for the heads-up and all. She's a bit terrifying, to be honest, so I wouldn't be going out of my way to befriend her anyway."

Draco's smile spread crookedly. "Don't play dumb with me. I know that if she was in school eighteen years ago when I was here…well, I'd be trying my very hardest to be friends with her."

"Why's that?"

"Because she's gorgeous in a very intimidating way," Draco said matter-of-factly. "Girls like her are born to tempt good little Gryffindors like yourself. Forbidden fruit, and all that."

"That sounds scarily like sexual harassment," Ted said jokingly.

"I'm not saying it to _her_. Quit making me sound like a pervert, you're thinking it as well." Draco rolled his eyes. "Now, go on. I'm sure Professor Longbottom will be expecting you for Herbology. Not that he'd ever dare deduct a single point from any House, do not abuse his cowardice. Go on."

…

It was about three weeks later that Teddy started getting nervous about his promise to Professor Malfoy.

Over the course of the three weeks, he and Victoire snogged and made up, Freckles's boyfriend continued to remain a mystery, and Defense class continued to be enthralling despite their teacher's obvious disdain for each and every student. His promise to stay away from the Russian girl was fairly easy considering she rarely came to meals and was only in half his classes, and even then she sat on the other side of the room.

But three weeks later, Ronia was virtually missing from classes. And no one noticed, really, apart from Parker and Teddy. It was one night at dinner that Parker'd been the one to bring it up.

"Where's me future wife?" Parker asked Freckles.

Freckles, who was wearing her hair in two braids, took off her reading glasses and looked up from her book to give her brother an exhausted look. "Who are you possibly talking about? No woman in this school is stupid enough to marry you."

"That's a low blow," Abe remarked, almost admiringly.

"It's the truth," Freckled persisted with a shrug.

"I'm talkin' about Vargstrom."

"Not even Loki isn't dumb enough to marry you."

"You _know_ what I mean, Freckles!" Parker grumbled. "Ronia? Where is she? The entire school knows you're the only one she comes within a meter of willingly. Your other two roommates have bailed, which means you alone know where she is most of the day."

"If you must know, Ronia is resting," Freckles said simply, slipping her glasses back on and looking down at her book.

"Oi! I ain't done with you," Parker said, snatching away her book and tossing it carelessly over his shoulder into the aisle. He distinctly heard some horrified gasps from the Ravenclaw table at the mistreatment of such a sacred item as a book. Freckles was indignant, small puffs of steam pouring from her ears. "Why is she resting? Is she ill? Is it Dragon Pox? 'Cause she hasn't been to a single meal in three days."

"I didn't realize you paid such close attention to our Russian friend, Parker," Abe said with a raise of his eyebrow.

"How can I _not_?"

Freckles looked between the two resident idiots in her life. "Do _either_ of you ever look at a calendar?"

"Urm…no," Parker said shaking his head in sync with Abe.

Freckles huffed and pushed her glasses up onto her head, rolling her eyes. "In case you two have forgotten - which I don't doubt that you have - Ronia is a _werewolf_. And if either of you were competent enough to read a calendar, you'd realize that the full moon is in _three _days. She's obviously been experiencing the harsh effects that come with lycanthropy."

The look on both boys' faces was like someone had just smacked some sense into them. Enlightened, they each murmured, "_Ohhh_…" and "That makes sense."

And it was at that moment that Ronia busted through the doors, wearing a zip-up hooded sweatshirt, denim jeans, and a pair of fuzzy blue socks. Her hair - and this never happened - was pushed back with a headband, fully displaying the extent of her scars. She marched quickly past everyone gawking at her and sat down next to Freckles, as she usually did at meals and wordlessly started filling her plate with an almost frantic speed. Now that she was up close and her hair was pulled back, Teddy observed that her scars actually started in her hair line, leaving small bare three-inch lines.

"I thought you weren't feeling well?" Freckles asked, looking at her friend with concern.

"Yeah, well, Slughorn brought me my Wolfsbane. I need to get that ghastly taste out of my mouth," Ronia murmured, barely intelligible. "And I'm ravenous." She stuffed a massive spoonful of mashed potatoes in her mouth and didn't bother swallowing before stuffing in roast beef as well.

She was eating…wolfishly.

"And I thought you said you'd throw yourself into the Black Lake and be at the mercy of the mermaids before wearing those socks your father sent you," Freckles added, sounding even more concerned.

"Then I guess I'm going for a late night swim later, aren't I?" Ronia mumbled through her full mouth of food.

No one said anything to that, just watched Ronia stuff her face.

Parker, always the one to break the silence, cleared his throat and said, "So, I was wondering if you were interested in maybe going with me to Hogsmeade next weekend?"

Ronia paused and looked up at Parker, her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk from being stuffed. Everyone was staring intently, waiting for her to answer. Ronia looked around to the faces, looking for clues in their expressions and turned to Freckles, and said, "Is he kidding?"

"Unfortunately, he's not," Freckles answered her dryly.

Ronia swallowed the content of her mouth and took a sip of her water, still staring around at the grave faces watching her closely.

Then a chuckle escaped her lips and everyone was knocked back with shock. Ronia was actively trying to stop laughing, holding a hand over her mouth as her shoulders shook and squeezing her eyes shut. Finally the dam broke, though, and her low and rough laughter could be heard through her hand.

"Are you _insane_?" she finally asked, still laughing. "Why the fuck would you ask me on a date?"

"I'm starting to wonder the same thing," Parker grumbled, not appreciating that she was laughing at him when he was trying to ask her out.

"It's not that you aren't a good-looking guy, really," she said, her laughter calming down. "But, let's face it, I'm not the prettiest girl in the school or even at this table. I'd safely bet I'm the most unattractive girl of them all. Which begs the question, why ask me?" Her golden eyes were glittering with some amusement.

"Besides the fact that he wants to have your children?" Abe joined in, grinning, earning a hard elbow from Parker.

"Well, regardless of your desire to anatomically-impossibly carry my spawn, I'm afraid I must decline," Ronia said, the amusement dying in her eyes as she returned to her cool composure once more. "For both our sakes. But if it's of any help, I hear that a girl at this very table by the name of Aria O'Neil cannot stop talking about your 'hot body' in the girls' lavatories."

Parker's nose crinkled. He didn't take rejection well. "Aria O'Neil has a pig nose."

"You mean like this?" Teddy asked, morphing his nose into a pink snout, receiving laughter from all of his mates. He was happy he was able to lighten the mood, his little gift came in handy that way.

Teddy saw Ronia's amber eyes twinkle with distinct curiosity. "That is very interesting."

"The nose thing?" Teddy shrugged. "No big deal, really."

"Well, maybe for you," Abe said with a laugh. "To the rest of us, it's absolutely foreign."

"You have wands!" Teddy insisted. "You could glamour your nose if you really wanted."

"But it's just a glamour," Ronia said and something in her voice was very…well, profound. "It doesn't change what's really there, just what people see."

"Is that why you don't glamour the side of your face?" Parker said bluntly.

"Jesus, Parker! Did our mother teach you anything about manners!" Freckles scolded harshly. "Apologize, now!"

"It's not a problem," Ronia said, holding up a single hand. "It's refreshing, what he said. Most people avoid the topic as much as possible. I prefer bluntness to pity. But if you want to know, then yes, that is part of it."

"What's the other part?" Parker asked, leaning forward intrigued.

She smirked. "I suck at glamours."

Parker gave a hardy laugh and lifted his glass. "Cheers to that! So do I, darling!"

The rest of the table chuckled, because it really was true. The year before, he'd tried to glamour his eyes blue like Teddy's and he walked around with color-flashing eyes all day because the glamour kept flickering in and out.

"I rather like them," Abe said, now that the tension had broken over Ronia's marred face.

"You'd be the one and only then," she said, absently reaching up to scratch the deep lines of her face.

Teddy thought,_ No, he wouldn't be_. And then he wanted to slap himself for thinking it. His girlfriend was only at the table right behind them. He needed to stop thinking that Ronia was dark and dangerous and mysterious in all of the most incredible ways. Even if he didn't have a girlfriend, he just saw Parker shot down like a spring duck. If she wasn't interested in Parker White "fittest bloke in Hogwarts" then she would never even consider a tall, skinny, weird-looking Metamorphmagus like him.

Teddy knew he wasn't hideous, but he knew he wasn't anything to swoon about either. He was pretty tall, at about five-eleven, and he stayed in shape and had a pretty hard stomach and shoulders, if he did say so himself. His eyes, when he wasn't messing with their color, were silvery blue and his hair at its natural state was a plain brown, but he usually kept it blue. Whenever Teddy thought about altering his face with his ability, Parker told him to knock it the fuck off, that he had a good jaw and a nice straight nose and he shouldn't mess with that.

But Ronia…had this body and this face and even her hands were appealing and long.

Realizing that most of the table was looking at the right side of her face, Ronia decided it was time to tilt it down and act like she became fascinated by the food once more and continued stuffing her face. Durmstrang food was nothing like this. It was all protein and carbs and everything else was low-fat and none of it really had any flavor - it was only for nutrition, nothing else. Durmstrang kids were forced to be kept in shape because of their rigorous physical and flying courses, all of which were required.

"Hey! Parker White!" a kid called to him from down the table. Parker looked to the First Year with a raised eyebrow. "When are Quidditch practices?"

"In a week, but not for you, you tool! No First Years allowed!"

The other kid moaned, upset, but Parker just sent him the good old two-finger salute and rolled his eyes, looking back to his friends.

"James is going to hate that," Teddy remarked. "He can suck it up with the rest of them," Parker said remorselessly. "He's nothing but a babe. Quidditch is a rough sport and our Seeker graduated last year, so either I find a new one or we're royally fucked."

"I used to Seek for Durmstrang," Ronia said conversationally, pilfering some of the ham off of Freckles's plate since the girl had Accio'd her book from the floor and was back to being engrossed by it.

With their jaws dropped, the boys all looked at Ronia.

"You're kidding," Parker said.

"No, I'm not," Ronia said as she was very preoccupied with sticking ham and roast beef between a giant roll with mashed potatoes and peas and butter and yams, all with gravy poured over it. Opening her mouth as wide as it would go, she chomped down on the huge sandwich and a growl of contentment came from the back of her throat.

"Are you good?" Parker asked urgently.

Ronia shrugged, wiping her gravy-coated mouth with her sleeve. Apparently, Durmstrang didn't have etiquette classes like Beauxbaton's. "I guess."

"Will you tryout? Please? I'm beggin' ya, you beautiful, beautiful human being," Parker pleaded. His puppy face was downright hideous, to be honest. It kind of freaked Teddy out.

Even Ronia looked perturbed by the display, wrinkling her nose. "If you don't stop making that face, you can forget it."

Parker dropped his puppy face like a hat. "So, will ya?"

"Isn't Loki the Slytherin Seeker?"

Frowning, Parker sighed and said, "Yes…and I can understand if you don't want to compete against your brother, but -"

"Fuck no, I'd love to compete with my brother," Ronia said around another bite of her massive sandwich. Teddy was amazed that she could pack so much food into that tight, thin body of hers. "Count me in. On one condition, though."

"_Anything_," Parker promised desperately.

"If I make Seeker…which I probably will, mind you…I want to put together half of the team practices," she said with a wicked little smile that crooked at the rippled corner of her mouth.

"Deal." Parker held his hand out to shake on it, but Ronia hesitated.

She held up her gooey hand. "I'm kind of…covered in gravy right now. Rain check on the handshake. But you have yourself a deal."

"That was probably a really bad idea," Freckles said to her brother.

"Why's that?" he asked.

"She comes from _Durmstrang_. They're known for their brutal drilling and really intense sports teams. You just signed your team onto an entire season on unending pain."

Ronia shrugged like what're-ya-gonna-do. "Broken bones are good for you. Builds character."


	6. You Smell Like Thanksgiving and Orgasms

Chapter Six: You Smell Like Thanksgiving and Orgasms

That night in their bedroom, the boys were getting into their pajamas and Parker said, "This has gone on long enough. We need to find out who my sister's boyfriend is. And soon. I need to know before Quidditch tryouts."

Abe's brow furrowed. "And why is that?"

"In case he's trying out, obviously!" Parker exclaimed. "So I can hex his broomstick or at the very least make sure he doesn't get on the team."

"That's not very sportsmanlike," Teddy chided. "You should give him a fair tryout like everyone else."

Parker scoffed. "Who says the tryouts are fair?"

Abe eyed his friend closely. "Is the reason I didn't get on the team in fourth year because of you?"

"Why would you ever think that?" Parker said, blinking with innocence.

"You're so full of shit," Abe laughed, throwing a sock at his friend's face playfully.

"It's not my fault you're lousy on a broom." Parker shrugged, taking the sock off his face and dropping it on their floor which was slowly collecting a fair collection of mismatched socks. Boys will be boys. "Anyway, my point is, I know how we can unmask the wanker Freckles is dating."

Teddy knew he was going to regret asking, but said anyway, "How?"

"In three days, no one is going to be in her room from nine to eleven. Freckles and Ronia's roommates all left, Ronia will be hiding for her Change, and Freckles will be on Prefect duty," Parker said, his eyes glimmering with mischief.

"You're forgetting something obvious, mate," Abe said. "There are wards that make sure boys can't get into the girls' dorms after curfew. You wouldn't be able to get in."

Parker's grin was so wide that it took up most of his face. "You're right. _I_ wouldn't be. There's a loophole for the wards. Because of the students' familiars always coming and going, the wards do not apply to animals. And it just so happens that I know an Animagus and a Metamorphmagus." He gestured between his friends.

"I have to say," Abe, the Animagus said, "I'm impressed with your plan." He'd accomplished becoming an Animagi in their fifth year and loved _any_ reason to transform, even one as stupid as this.

"Abe would have to go alone," Teddy said with a shrug. "I can't change all of me into an animal. Just parts of me."

"Then, that's what you can do. Change as much of yourself into an animal as possible and hopefully the wards will get confused or just accept you as a familiar that's been transfigured one too many times," Parker reasoned, plopping down onto his bed.

Abe crawled in under his own covers and asked, "What would we be looking for?"

"I dunno. Love notes, a picture, her diary…anything that gets his name."

Teddy jumped into his mound of pillows and said, "You would betray your sister's privacy like that?"

"It's my duty at her brother," Parker said nobly. "She's left me no choice after all."

"Yeah, Teddy, since when did you get all soft?" Abe asked.

"I'm not soft, I'm just trying to point out that if she finds out about us doing this, she's going to hate all of us - Parker, especially - forever," Teddy explained, trying to be the voice of reason. But then again, there was no reasoning once Abe and Parker put their heads to something.

"Well, she won't find out because we'll leave everything the way we found it," Abe said confidently.

"Alright, if you say so…" Teddy said with a shrug, reaching for his wand and turning out the lights in the room. He heard his friends pulling on the curtains around their beds for privacy.

It was dark for a long while and Teddy just shut his eyes to go to sleep when he heard Parker's voice.

"Just one more thing. While you're in their room…you wouldn't mind pinching me a pair of Ronia's panties, would ya?"

…

Ronia was having one hell of a week. Her symptoms for the approaching full moon started two days earlier than they normally did and then that Parker kid asked her out - which was beyond bizarre - and the smell of a certain someone who seemed to always be around was starting to drive her a little crazy.

That boy. With the crazy bright blue hair. She did not know if it was the wolf blood in him or his shampoo or something, but he just gave off this tantalizingly provocative aroma that clung to everything he touched and everyone he was near. In the classes that they didn't have together, she could always pick out which seat he'd sat in because his scent was just that potent - at least, this close to the full moon it was.

The worst part of it all was that he could tell when he'd just had a hot and heavy snogging session with his bossy Prefect girlfriend. It made Ronia want to vomit. Victoire Weasley's thoroughly unpleasant, cough-syrup-like scent mingled with Teddy's deliciousness and it was a repulsive combination. That mixed with the distinctive scent of arousal was just gag-inducting.

Well, the Victoire half of it was gross. When Lupin was flaunting his usual aroma mixed with arousal untainted by Victoire, Ronia had to mentally restrain herself from vivid daydreams of sex and pork chops and rainbows.

In the library the day before the full moon night, Ronia was looking for a book with a potion to dull sense because next month she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to stop herself from forcing Ted Lupin into the nearest available closet and working him like a rib.

_Mmm…ribs_…her mind trailed off. _Ronia, snap out of it! You need to find this potion otherwise you get expelled for sexual assault and - oh my God, there's that smell again_!

With a few sniffs, Ronia knew exactly where Lupin was in the library. He was shelves towards the back, deep in the stacks. Victoire wasn't with him, thank God, because Ronia just ate her weight in Yorkshire pudding and beef stew and wouldn't be able to stomach the smell.

She was already halfway to Teddy's aisle before realizing what she was doing. Feet in control, all Ronia could do was smack herself in the forehead with her book. Apparently her body was dead set on having a conversation with Lupin and when the full moon was mere hours away there was no stopping it.

She poked her head around the right corner and was hit in the face with a cloud of Ted Lupin's aroma and just about went cross-eyed. He hadn't noticed her approach, he was concentrating really hard on a book, so Ronia decided to stand there leaning a few feet away against the shelf until he noticed.

It took a few minutes, but he eventually saw her out of the corner of his eyes and turned with a jump.

"Oh, hey," he said, looking a little shocked by her presence.

"Did I scare you?"

"No." He shook his head.

She could hear his heartbeat quicken. _Liar, _she thought with a mental grin. "_Mhmm_," she hummed doubtfully. "What're you reading?"

"Book on transfiguration," he said, holding up the tome. Ronia plucked it from his hands without warning and flipped through the pages.

"Human transfiguration? Human to animal…human to object…But you're a Metamorphmagus," Ronia pointed out. "You can do all this without spells."

"Yes and no," he said. "I can morph some parts of my body, but I've never tried…you know…changing my whole body, you know? Well, I've changed the color of my skin before, but that's different from changing myself completely into an animal. I'm not an Animagus, after all."

"You skin?" Ronia asked. "What color?"

"Any color. Look." And then Ted's skin from head to toe was deep purple.

"Wow."

Ted turned back to his normal tan color and shrugged. "It's good to get out of class. If I make a bunch of spots appear, it looks like I have some kind of pox."

"Too bad you can't morph other people," Ronia said conversationally. "You'd have a nice little business there, getting people out of class with fake pox."

Teddy Lupin nodded, but Ronia could tell he was nervous for some reason. Knowing that the best way for someone to spill their secrets was to push them to the very edge of their comfort zone, she inched forward until she was close to him. Not too close, but close enough.

"Are you alright, Lupin?" Ronia asked.

"Call me Teddy," he said, an instinct.

"Teddy, then. Is there something bothering you?" she asked, knowing full well that there was. "Do I make you nervous? You don't have to lie. I can hear your heart beating fast and I can smell your fear."

_Nice going, Ronia_, she thought to herself. _Now he's _really_ going to think you're a freak_.

"You're…interesting, I guess," Teddy hedged, his heart rate picking up again.

"Weird, you mean."

"No, not weird," he said quickly. "Not at all. Intriguing would be a better word."

"I suppose, then," Ronia said slowly, trying to choose her words without the rash side of herself taking over, "that feeling is mutual."

Teddy snorted. "I intrigue you? That's a laugh. I'm so normal and you're so…you know."

"No, I don't know."

"Well…you're foreign, to begin with. And shy and intimidating and quirky and sexy and smart. It's a lot for a person - a guy, especially - to take in."

"Sexy?" Ronia asked with a smirk that she couldn't squelch. Normally she tried to nip smiling, and even frowning, in the bud because too much facial expression made her scars ripple and move and deepen. Anything that drew attention to them, she tried to avoid.

Ted rolled his eyes. "Right. Like you don't know that."

Ronia shook her head with a dark chuckle. "When one has to look in the mirror in the morning from one side only just so she doesn't have to be reminded of the horror on the other side, one does not usually associate oneself with any variations of attractive adjectives. Especially not 'sexy'." Ronia tried not to scowl, but it came through anyway.

"Parker made it very clear he thought you were attractive," Teddy pointed out.

Ronia sighed. "Parker is the boy - there's one in every school - who has a list of girls they want to get to know on an intimate level during school. Not because they're pretty or smart or have good personalities, but just to say that they have. I imagine that Parker was just thinking of the advantages of adding the school's secluded werewolf from Durmstrang to his hook-up resume`."

Teddy made a face that said he knew it was true, but wished it wasn't. "That may be correct, but…Parker doesn't chase after girls. But he's chasing after you."

"That's because I'm running," she said with a grim smile. "He's never had a girl hightail it in the opposite direction before, so it stands to reason that he'd have to chase."

Shrugged, Teddy nodded. "I guess. But just…don't write him off quite yet. He's a nice guy."

"It has nothing to do with him," Ronia continued. "I _can't_ date."

"Do you have a boyfriend in Russia or something?"

"No."

"Are you married or something weird like that?"

"No."

"Are you studying to become a nun?"

At that, Ronia laughed out loud. If she stepped into a convent, she'd probably burst into flames from the blackness of her soul in a Holy place. "No. I'm a werewolf, Teddy. It'd be too dangerous, especially when it gets near the full moon. I get all this pent up energy and being…_physical_ with a person can end badly. Or really well, depends on how you look at it."

"So in other words, the full moon makes you all randy?" Teddy said with a smile. "I'm not going to lie, Parker would not mind that in the least. His sex drive is more resilient than most teenage boys, believe it or not."

"Still." Ronia's nose wrinkled. "He smells like salty peanuts."

"Does everyone have a different smell?"

"Yes."

"What do I smell like?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ronia froze, but tried not to give away the panic at that question. It's not like she could say, _You smell like summer barbecue and ice cream cake and heaven and Karma Sutra. _She cleared her throat lightly. "Um…hard to say."

"Come on, I've gotta smell like something. Do I smell like…pumpkin juice? Because I drink a lot of that."

Slowly, Ronia nodded. "More like…pumpkin pie, though." With ice cream. And sex.

_JESUS, RONIA, STOP THINKING ABOUT SEX BEFORE YOU JUMP HIS BONES RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STACKS. _

The Wolf side of her brain was purring like the Devil: _No one is around. You're far deep in the library. No one would see you. Just a little nibble, clothes don't have to come __**all**__ the way off._

"Hmm," Teddy considered. "I can deal with smelling like pie."

"But smells are a lot more complicated than that," Ronia said before she could stop herself. "Everyone smells like a lot of things, usually. Like emotions, too. For example, Professor Malfoy usually smells like woodsy male cologne and absolute contempt for his students."

They both smiled at that.

"So…if I was mad, you would be able to tell with just a sniff?"

Ronia nodded hesitantly.

"So what am I feeling right now?" Teddy asked, smiling.

Taking one more step forward even though it wasn't necessary, Ronia bent forward and tilted her head to smell his shoulder. She took two inhales and fought the urge to lick him from shoulder to earlobe.

"Well…" she said, lingering against her shoulder for a moment, amused. "_Now_ you smell…aroused." She pulled back to see his face, expecting embarrassment.

But Teddy Lupin wasn't embarrassed, he was grinning with a glimmer of something mischievous in his silvery eyes flecked with blue. He shrugged. "I'm a teenage boy, what're you going to do?"

Ronia swallowed hard before saying quietly, "I should probably go…" And she turned to leave before his beautiful eyes could mess with her head any further.

Until she felt a hand take hold of the back of her sweatshirt and pulled her back into the stack and pressed her against the shelves. Ronia's heart all but stopped when she saw the confused and hungry look in Teddy's eyes. Unable to restrain herself, Ronia dug her hands into his magnificently messy hair and pulled his face to hers in a devouring kiss.

They were both breathing heavy as they gripped onto each other with squeezing, bruising, eager hands. One of Ronia's hands and clenched at the base of his hair and the other curled into his shirt while he was holding tight onto her waist and sweatshirt.

The Wolf inside of her growled greedily and she pushed at him until he was the one pressed against the shelves of books.

"I'm sorry…" she murmured against his lips, not really feeling apologetic at all as she continued kissing him hard and fast. "You just…smell…so good," she groaned between wide open kisses.

"Like pie?" he asked with a chuckle, bending down and kissing her throat and sucking on her pulse point, turning her bones to jelly.

"No…" she gasped, threading her fingers into his hair and urging him closer and harder against her neck. "So much better than…pie."

And then she smelt it. Barely noticeable under his overpowering fragrance was the slight lingering whiff of flowery perfume. Victoire's perfume.

And she automatically backed up off of him into two large steps.

"I'm…I'm really sorry," Ronia said quietly.

"Don't apologize," he said with a confused-like expression. "I wasn't complaining."

"You…Weasley…I can't…full moon," Ronia spluttered, feeling her Wolf inside of her growling in fury that she didn't mate with the boy and instead was turning and walking away as fast as she could.

Her Wolf was basically roaring by the time she was out of the library.

…~oOo~…

A/N. PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! REVIEWS MAKE ME SMILE AND MAKE ME WRITE FASTER!

~ So Long And Thanks For All The Fish ~


	7. Operation Werewolf Panties

…~oOo~…

Chapter Seven: Operation Werewolf Panties

Teddy's head was still whirling by the time he got back to his room.

What was that?

What was he thinking?

Was he crazy?

Not only was Teddy's best friend interested in Ronia but Teddy had a _girlfriend_! Why was he snogging a different girl in the stacks? All he remembered was during the entire conversation, he was suppressing the need to touch her and then she got close to him, her nose brushing her shoulder, and it was like tunnel vision when she started walking away…So he snatched her back, pulling her back against the shelves with no particular plan and she kissed him so hard that he thought his lips were going to bruise. Not that he minded at all.

It probably only lasted for less than two minutes, but the kissing was wild and feverish and in those few moments, he was hungrier for Ronia than he'd ever been for another human being.

Even more than Victoire. Which was insane. Victoire was the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts and was his and he couldn't even say that he wanted her more than anyone.

But this happened to boys, he consoled himself. Boys get randy over different girls at different times. The difference is whether or not the boy acts on it…which he had. But never again, he swore! He's keep a safe distance from Ronia for good measure.

He was lying on his back, staring at his ceiling in his dorm about that when his friends barreled in, looking excited and determined. Teddy checked his clock and grinned. Time to go break into the girls' dorms.

…

Teddy and Abe were in Ronia and Freckles's room. Freckles's side of the room had posters of cute Qudditch players and wizarding celebrities while Ronia's side was bare. It spoke volumes of the girl. It said that she wasn't planning on being here for long, like she anticipated having to go. But that was ridiculous. Maybe she was monk in her past life or something, because it was absolutely spotless. Freckles was clean, but Ronia's side of the room was almost the definition of compulsive. Not a speck of dust.

Teddy was still transfigured as a rat. He'd refused to take the risk of going through the wards still half-human, so he'd forced Abe to transfigure him. They decided the rat was the best idea, because it was a common familiar among the students so it wouldn't be a weird thing to detect coming and going from the girls' dorms.

Abe they weren't worried about in his Animagus form. He was, after all, and owl.

Even if he knew the owl was Abe, that little part of him that came with being a rat kept insisting that he run from the predator, but he felt better when Abe transformed back into his human self and picked Teddy up in his palms.

"You do not know how tempted I am to just let you stay that way," Abe said with an evil grin. Teddy squealed loudly in response and bit down hard, breaking skin on Abe's palm. "Ow!" Abe hissed. "You better not have rabies, dammit." Then he took his wand from his pocket and transfigured Teddy back into human.

It was disorienting at first for Teddy. He stumbled to the side and caught himself on a wall. He didn't particularly like being a rat. Everything was too big and too wonky to look at.

"Oh my God!" Teddy said, his hands over his big rat ears. "You did the spell wrong!"

Panic flashed across Abe's face and Teddy cackled, morphing his ears back to normal. "Just joking, mate. Like you could ever get a spell wrong," Teddy said with a roll of his eyes.

"Damn you, Metamorphmagus," Abe grumbled. "Now quit fooling around and start looking for something. Anything. Like Parker said, a diary would be convenient."

And they both started scouring Freckles's living space thoroughly, putting everything back where it was before they touched it. Teddy was still feeling bad about invading one of his best friend's space, but he kept telling himself that Parker was right and they _had_ to do this. No turning back now, after all. They'd already shuffled through all the stuff.

Teddy kept an ear out for Parker's some-one-is-coming call. They agreed that he would hoot like an owl twice if he heard someone coming. He was currently under the Disiullusionment charm, so if another girl in the hall left their room to go to the bathroom or something, they probably wouldn't see him.

There was a loud, protesting squeak as Abe moved back onto his haunches when he was bent down looking under her bed. Teddy paused and so did Abe. Experimentally, Abe shifted his weight again and the squeak resounded.

"The floorboard!" they hissed in unison.

Teddy knelt down next to his friend and they each took a corner of the wooden plank with spaces around it and pulled it up. Inside, sure enough, were stacks of parchment, all pinned together and organized. Abe snatched up the top stack, ran his eyes over it, and then his eyebrows came together in bewilderment.

"What? What is it?" Teddy whispered.

"None of it is in English. It's in…I don't even know. German or something. I didn't know Freckles spoke more than one language," Abe murmured, nonplussed.

"Neither did I," Teddy muttered, thinking hard. "I don't think Parker's mentioned it."

"Hmm…" Abe considered. "We'll have to take them with us."

"We can't! She'll know we've been in here!" Teddy hissed.

"Don't you know that copying charm that you use on my notes for class when you fall asleep?"

Scratching his head, Teddy said, "I haven't used it since Fifth Year…let me think." He thought about it and hesitantly said the spell he thought it was, and sure enough an identical stack of parchment appeared next to the other.

"Brilliant!" Abe said with a wide smile. "You finish copying the other stacks and I'll go looking for Ronia's knickers." He wagged his eyebrows and bounced of the ground.

Teddy did not want to have to think of Ronia's knickers. Not after what happened in the library.

Teddy was going about his copying when he heard Abe swear under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Ted asked.

"I can't find her knickers! They're not in her dresser or her trunk or her desk. But that's just ridiculous! She has to have panties, unless she…"

The silence hung there for a long, thoughtful minute of oncoming epiphany.

"Bloody hell! Holy shit!" Abe said, his eyes as big and round as saucers, blinking owlishly. "Ronia Vargstrom doesn't wear knickers! _No wonder she never wears skirts_."

Teddy felt his face getting burning hot with the blush. The thought was definitely sexy, especially after having been snogging her in the library, and to think, as they were kissing she was commando under those leather pants.

This girl was one giant conundrum.

Teddy was about to open his mouth, but from the hallways came two, soft owl-like hoots.

"We gotta scram!" Abe said, quickly picking up all the copied papers while Teddy crammed the originals back into the floor and sealing the floorboard. Abe tucked their evidence into his jacket and threw the transfiguration charm at Teddy who was hit with it like a hurricane and was suddenly a rat again.

Just as quickly, Abe was an owl and they were each hurrying out of the room like hell. That's when they saw the reason for the emergency call. A Prefect, not Freckles, was coming back to her rooms looking exhausted, cursing Peeves under her breath.

Abe and Ted saw the shimmer in the corner of Parker masked by the charm and all three of them ran as fast as their long human or tiny rodent feet allowed them. Stupid, lucky Abe could fly other them with lazy, confident ease. Everyone had owls flying around, no reason to worry about someone being suspicious or get stepped on.

When they got back to their room, they all almost screamed when they someone was in there.

"_Jesus_, James!" Parker grumbled after he nearly jumped out of his socks. "What in God's name are you doing in our room at ten o'clock at night?"

"I need to show you guys something," James said, adjusting his glasses and looking up at them with concern in his eyes. "It's about Freckles."

Parker and Abe were immediately on him, asking question after overlapping question and James was looking overwhelmed and kind of scared. Teddy brought his fingers to his mouth and let out a shrill, sharp whistle that grabbed all their attentions.

"Let the boy talk," Teddy commanded, walked over to push the older boys away from the First Year to get him some room. "What is it, James?"

"Well, I was looking through the Marauders' Map -"

"Wait. How did you get that?" Ted asked in awe. Last he heard, Harry kept it locked up nice and safe.

"I filched it from my dad's study," James said with a shrug, like he did it all the time. "My point is that I was…um…looking at the girls' dorms and -"

"Why were you doing that?" Parker asked, nonplussed.

James's face got red as a cherry. "I like a girl, alright? And she's a Prefect, I wanted to see if she was still doing her rounds or -"

"You fancy a Sixth Year?" Abe clarified.

"Seventh Year, actually, and I -"

Abe snorted. "Sorry, mate, but you probably have no chance."

"Do you want to hear what I have to say or not?" James snapped, getting sick of the interruptions. "My fondness for older women can be discussed later, you twits! Now, listen! So I saw you guys in Freckles's room, and when I saw she wasn't there, I started looking for her other places. I went through the _entire_ castle, and she's just…gone. She's not anywhere. I looked everywhere dozens of times."

They all took a moment to absorb this news.

"Are you _sure_?" Teddy asked firmly.

James nodded. "Positive. Ophelia White is not currently on Hogwarts grounds."

…

After the news of Freckles's status as missing from the whole school, they all started talking at once, following more conversation with themselves than the other people in the room. There was panic, worry, and anger. Parker was dead-set on believing that her Slytherin boyfriend convinced her to sneak off-grounds in the middle of the night. Abe thought she'd been kidnapped. Teddy didn't know what to think. James just stood there, staring at the older boys with wide eyes in his pajamas and sitting on a bed, waiting for there to be some kind of conclusion to the cloud of nonsense that they were emitting. None of their theories made sense and even if James could hear one over the other it would do no good.

They were freaking out.

They'd looked through the map themselves for her name, but there was nothing.

They were still freaking out about an hour later.

Abe had just ripped the Map out of Parker's hands to look through it one more time when he gasped and everyone huddled around him in anticipation.

"Look!" Abe pointed to a space on the map.

The girls' dorms.

Freckles and Ronia's room.

The name "Ophelia White" was on the bed. Not moving, like she was sleeping, her name floating on the paper as if it'd been there all along.

"No fecking way," Parker murmured.

They all agreed with that statement.

Wherever Freckles had disappeared to, she was back once again and in bed. And they all didn't have a clue what to say to that.

None of them slept, of course. They all just laid in their beds and stared at the ceiling after James returned to his room with the Map. Teddy, Parker, and Abe all knew what the others were thinking, but no one bothered to voice it. What was the point of saying aloud all your questions when you knew your company didn't have any answers?

…~oOo~…

Ronia awoke on the floor of the Forbidden Forest, naked, and sweaty. The sun was just starting to touch the horizon, the sky a dark lavender and the moon still apparent. Not making an effort to move, Ronia watched as she lay on her back, looking up at from the tiny clearing she was in, up at the warring colors painting the sky. The beautiful periwinkle of dawn against the onyx of nighttime. The moon was reluctant to relinquish its dominance, but was forced out by Morning.

The sun was now a pretty light blue, the grass dripping with dew, and the fog still heavy in the forest. Her entire body ached and Ronia knew getting up would only make it worse, but if she stayed much longer she was sure to be eaten by something in the forest. Dark predators didn't take kindly to werewolves. No one took kindly to werewolves, Ronia realized with a grim smirk.

Pulling herself up off the ground with shaking legs, and looked at herself. Covered in dirt and little spatters of her own blood, she retreated to the spot closer to the edges of the forest where she stashed clothes the night before. She found her cloak, wrapped it around body, and began dragged her aching feet out of the trees.

"Would ya be Miss Ronia, by any chance?" a deep voice said, stumbling over her name a little bit.

Ronia gave a little jump and turned to the source of the voice. The man was very tall, very broad, dressed in ragged clothes, and had long black hair and a long beard, each tinged with grey near the roots. She knew him from sitting up at the head table at meals and had to think hard for the name.

"You're Professor Hagrid, aren't you? Care of Magic Creatures teacher, right?" she asked hesitantly.

"That I am, that I am," he said with a big smile. "And you the new werewolf student, aren't ya?"

She nodded slowly.

"Poppy told me t' bring ya these," Hagrid said, holding out three bottles of potions, all labeled. "I was never one for potions, meself, but these're s'posed to help, I'd imagine."

Accepting the potions, Ronia recognized each one. Pain tonic, Pepper-Up, and some blood-replenishing draught that she imagined was just in case. Werewolves were known to get pretty torn up during their Change, and some wounds just didn't stop bleeding. Ronia used to have to take the blood-replenishing draught all the time, especially before she started taking Wolfsbane.

Ronia downed two of the three easily and slipped the extra in her pocket.

"Do ya need any help on back to the castle?" Hagrid asked and continued smiling in that friendly manner.

"Um. No, thanks. I'll be fine." Ronia tried giving a smile, but it was tired and probably weak-looking. "Once I get up to my bedroom and in some clean clothes, I'll be good as new." Already she was feeling the effects of the Pepper-Up potion. Making it to her room would be a piece of cake.

_Mmm…cake…_she thought dreamily. Maybe once she got to her room, she'd try calling for a house-elf to bring her a nice big piece of cake in lieu of breakfast.

Then her stomach turned over in protest and she halted in her shuffle back to the castle. The nausea ebbed and she continued. _Okay, I guess the cake is a no-no_.

Ronia eased into her room quietly in case her roommate was asleep, but Freckles was far from. Standing at the mirror, getting dressed in her uniform, Freckles was humming a song that was strangely familiar to Ronia. She dismissed it, knowing that most lullabies sounded very similar no matter the country you were born in, and cleared her throat to announce herself.

Freckles spun around with a big smile. "Good morning, Ronia! How do you feel?"

"_Ya chuvstvuyu sebya kak der'mo_," Ronia mumbled miserably, shuffling towards her bed.

"Huh?" Freckles said, clueless.

"I said I feel like shit," Ronia repeated, falling face forward into her pillows and remaining like that, half hanging off the bed and curled up in a ratty coat, her body still filthy.

"I'm assuming you won't be in class?" Freckles said.

"Yes."

"I'll take notes for you, and I'm sure so will Abe." The Irish girl walked over and moved the short brown and silver hair off of Ronia's neck affectionately before planting a kiss on her head that Ronia was too exhausted to growl about. "And I'll come up during lunch to check on you. Sound good?"

Ronia barely nodded before sleep overpowered her mind and body and she faded into the black.

…~oOo~…

A/N. PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! REVIEWS MAKE ME HAPPY AND ARE BETTER THANK ICE CREAM CAKE AND ORGASMS. OKAY, MAYBE NOT THE LATTER, BUT PRETTY DAMN NEAR CLOSE.

~ So Long And Thanks For All The Fish ~


	8. Professor Dracula

A/N. In this chapter, you will be meeting a character of my own invention. Personally, I love him, but let me know what you think about him, because if he gets good feedback then he'll make other appearances (:

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. It's sad, but true. J.K. Rowling is my goddess.

…~oOo~…

Chapter Eight: Professor Dracula

The next two nights, the boys and James watched the Map. The first night that they watched it like a hawk, they hadn't started early enough and Freckles had already vanished from Hogwarts, only to return at the wee hours of the morning. The next night they started looking at Freckles's quarters extra early and saw it happen. One minute she's in the room, the next she's on her Prefect duties, and the next she's just…disappears. Like the pop of an Apparition, she stopped existing on the Marauders' Map until suddenly appearing back in her bedroom.

And then there were the papers from her room written in the different language.

The boys all sat around a table in the back of the library with different ancient language texts in front of them. They were looking at Giant speak and the Leprechaun language and even Fae dialects.

None of it was matching up though. All they knew so far was that one of the words on Freckles's papers was Leprechaun for "bellybutton". Not exactly helpful.

Parker wasn't even really helping. He hated the library and claimed he was allergic to books. For someone who was pushing them all so hard to find something of use, the lazy bum was just sitting back, leaning back on the back to legs of his chair, eating a bag of crisps contently.

"Why are you guys looking at all this Hungarian?"

All three boys jumped, but Parker was the one to lose balance on his tipping chair and fell backwards completely. Abe and Teddy chuckled, but Ronia - the voice - just rolled her eyes.

"Wait," Parker said, picking himself up from the ground. "What language did you say this was?" He gestured at the papers.

"Hungarian. Didn't you know that?" she said, raising an eyebrow critically. "You are the ones looking at them, after all."

"We thought it was a magic language," Teddy said.

Ronia gave a small, amused snort, and picked up the parchment closest to her. "Nope. This is Hungarian alright. We had a bunch of kids from Hungary at Durmstrang, I picked up on a little of it."

"So you can read it?" Abe said excitedly.

Giving out a bark of a laugh, Ronia threw back her head with it. "Fuck no. All I know how to say is, 'A pint for me and the pretty girl at the end of the bar' and how to ask if someone wants to have sex with me."

They all shot her weird looks.

She shrugged. "Most of it I picked up from the Hungarian boys when we were at the pub. The point is, I don't know how to read it, but I know two people that can."

"Really?" Teddy asked eagerly. Even though they'd had that little incident in the library, Ronia had gone on to pretend like it never happened and he decided that so would he. Just like the night by the fireplace on the first day, he was starting to wonder if it ever really happened.

"Yeah. And you know one of them, too. Freckles."

The boys all exchanged looks before Abe was the one to speak, "We can't do that, actually. Who's the second?"

"Loki speaks Hungarian. His mother was from Hungary, actually."

Then the boys all groaned.

"Anything but Loki!" Parker moaned, throwing himself down onto the table dramatically.

"Look," Ronia said curtly. "If you want to know what the parchments say, then trust me. You all seem to be acting weird about asking Freckles and you all hate Loki. I wasn't going to suggest the third option, because it's certainly not as appealing as the first two. I'm warning you. Do you really want to understand the papers?"

They all nodded fervently and Ronia leaned forward on the table, motioning them all to come closer.

"Option three involves a bit of rule breaking," she started off warningly.

"We're no stranger to breaking rules, love," Parker said with a shrug.

Ronia smirked. "Good. This Saturday, we'll have to all go to Hogsmeade, but we're not staying in the village, understand? I'm going to write to a professor I had at Durmstrang who was Hungarian and we'll ask he meets us on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. He owes me a favor and he can translate all the papers. Or at least, most of the them."

"How did a teacher end up owing you a favor?"

"I may or may not have caught him as high as a Hungarian Horntail before class one day. I made it clear that if he wanted to keep his job that if I ever asked him to jump he would ask 'how high'."

"So…this is blackmail we're engaging in?" Abe said, pursing his lips. Abe had done some pretty sneaky things in the past, but nothing remotely close to something of this caliber. Blackmail was a pretty big deal.

"Barely," Ronia said simply. "I like to think of it as an IOU. So, Saturday then?" She started to walk away.

"One more thing," Teddy said and she stopped to turn back with a questioning look on her face. "How did you know Freckles speaks Hungarian?"

Ronia gave a little smile and answered, "She sings it in her sleep."

…~oOo~…

On Saturday morning, Freckles announced that she would be unable to attend the trip to Hogsmeade, using the excuse of a Herbology assignment. Ronia personally knew there was no such assignment, but the Seventh Year boys didn't and it was okay to keep it that way.

Freckles and Ronia fell into a silent agreement. Freckles doesn't ask about Ronia's odd behavior and weapon paraphernalia and Ronia doesn't mention anything about Freckles's late night absences. While Ronia was curious, she still knew the value of privacy. Come on, Ronia carried an assortment of knives and a handgun in the secret compartment under her trunk. Midnight walks was nothing compared to the arsenal of secrecy that Ronia possessed.

It was a good thing that Freckles was bailing on Hogsmeade anyway, because Ronia and the three boys had things they needed to do. The Hungarian professor Ronia had talked about readily agreed to meet at a pub outside of Hogsmeade. Ronia said that they should try to beat him there because otherwise he'd already be double-fisting a couple of pints. Ronia made it very clear that the man was close to useless after he started drinking.

The pub was small and cramped and had holes in the ceiling, but there was barely anyone there and it was warm. While Ronia was never cold, her roommate had knitted her a hat, scarf, and mittens and those all looked really ridiculous unless you had a sweater on, so she had slipped into a jumper, omitting the mittens. Otherwise, she wore her usual leather pants and a pair of thick black steel-toe boots.

The boys were all wearing jumpers and kept their hands deep in their pockets. It was a chilly day out and once they got inside the pub, they rubbed their hands together, grateful for the heat, and they all slid onto bar stools. Ronia somehow ended up between Abe and Teddy, which was pure hell for her, because his smell was right in her face, still just as tantalizing at during her full moon. Maybe not as prominent, but it was certainly there.

The barmaid came by and asked what they all would like. Parker asked for a Firewhiskey, Parker and Teddy had butterbeers, but Ronia asked for two pints muggle Guinness. They raised eyebrows at her once the barmaid went off to fetch their drinks.

"Two?" Abe said. "Is that really necessary."

Ronia nodded. "Once you meet my old professor, you'll see it most definitely is."

They were all about halfway done with their drinks - Ronia was starting her second - when a man walked through the door in a pea coat, gentleman's hat, and a lumpy striped scarf. From the grumble Ronia murmured, they all realized that this was her professor.

They had all been expecting some old geezer, close to ends of his days, with barely any hair and a maybe a white beard. The boys had not been expecting, however, a handsome young man who seemed to be in his mid-twenties with shaggy black hair and a scruffy face. He had pale skin and his nose was slightly crooked, but it made him look even more handsome in a weird, quirky way, the boys all thought with disdain. He was the rumpled kind of good-looking that girls all fell head over heels for.

Ronia waved him over and the professor broke out into a big smile at the sight of his former student. He walked over and came up behind her, giving her a big kiss on the cheek that she cringed from.

That was weird, the boys all thought, and rather inappropriate.

"I knew you would miss me eventually, Ronia" the professor said in a very thick Hungarian accent, sounding very much like Dracula. "I wait months for your letter and it finally come."

"I've been at Hogwarts less than a month," she pointed disdainfully, obviously carrying a heavy load of annoyance for this man.

"I wait in summer too," he said.

"Parker, Teddy, Abe, this is Professor Ambrus Rigo. He was my teacher I was telling you about."

"Only teacher?" the man asked, looking crestfallen.

"Shut up, Ambrus," she growled.

"She forgets to mention," Ambrus said to the other boys there, "that we dated when I was in my final year at Durmstrang and then again when I was in my first year teaching."

"You were a lousy teacher and a lousy boyfriend, Ambrus, now please just sit down and help us. I'll buy you a beer as a thank you when you're done." Ronia opened up her satchel and took the papers in Hungarian and handed them over to him. "If you could translate these, it would be brilliant."

Ambrus Rigo started looked through the stack of about ten pages and shrugged. "Simple enough. Can I have my beer now?"

Ronia shook her head. "No. You still need to travel back to Durmstrang."

"I have friend with Floo network," he reasoned. "Floo is easy. And I can speak both Hungarian and English when I am drinking, you know." He sounded like a child trying to negotiate with his mother for candy before dinner.

Ronia was still shaking her head. "While that may be true, you have a tendency to not realize you aren't speaking English when you're drunk even though to know how. Also, you get handsy. And my friends here really shouldn't have to be subject to that."

_All the boys perked up. Friends? We were Ronia Vargstrom's friends? _they all thought like puppies wagging their tails.

The professor huffed and threw his hands up in surrender. "Fine." He bent over the papers and got to work.

Getting tired of sitting in one place for a while, the Hogwarts kids started moving around, to the other side of the room for a little bit while Ambrus continued translating. They all had had a few drinks and Ronia was grinning more than they'd seen so far. Not full-on smiles, but a lot of smirks.

"So, tell us," Abe said, grinning. "How did you end up dating that guy?"

"Honestly?" she said with a chuckle. "I was a First Year when he was in his last year and my dad was trying to push me into marrying into a respectable family to hopefully outweigh my…condition with society. Werewolf laws are far different in Eastern Europe. They aren't reformed like here, as a matter of fact, they're downright archaic. Werewolves don't have the right to trials and almost all offenses face the death penalty. Which means, basically, if I had a neighbor when I was living in Russia or even in Bulgaria, who didn't like me just because I'm a werewolf, that neighbor could call the police and tell them I stole their mail. I would be arrested, denied a trial, and be put to death. Werewolves have to tread carefully."

"Wow," Abe said, looking horrified by it all. "But what does that have to do with Professor Dracula?"

"The Rigo family is powerful and wealthy. Society looks well on them," she said as if is should have been obvious. "So my father and Ambrus's father - who is secretly a werewolf supporter - got together and decided that Ambrus and I were going to get married. We were forced to start courting and as a first year, I was just thrilled that he was old enough to buy me drinks at the pub. And then two years later, he started working as my professor and I'm a Third Year and we somehow fall into courting again. It was…strange."

"Why'd you guys break up?" Parker inquired.

"Besides the fact that he passed 'loony' three galaxies ago?" She gave a short laugh. "It wasn't that I really wanted to end it. The opposite, really. I was really starting to warm up to the guy, but then the papers starting talking badly about him and his family, and I didn't want to be the reason to put him through that, so I broke it off. He took it badly. In his head, we're still going to get married one day."

Teddy took a long pull of his butterbeer. He knew all about family expectations of marrying a specific person. Even before they were dating, the Weasley and Potter clans were always talking about the day when he and Victoire would get married. It was a given for them. And it made his head hurt. He was only seventeen for goodness sake! He wanted to take his time and meet loads of people. And women, for that matter. How was he supposed to know what kind of woman he wanted to spend his life with if he didn't know any type besides Victoire?

"That's bizarre," Abe said, obviously thinking very hard on it. Abe was always thinking. It was what he did.

"No, no, mate," Parker said, waving his hand in front of Abe's deep-in-thought expression. "You're not allowed to think that hard when you're drinking. It's not allowed."

"I'll drink to that," Ted said, still thinking about how everyone was always telling him to marry Victoire.

And it wasn't until this moment that his brain kicked in and said, _I don't want to._ Then his brain started answering all of his own questions. Did he want to spend forever with his current girlfriend? _No_. Was Victoire everything he wanted from a wife? _No_. Was she even everything he wanted from a girlfriend? _Not really_.

She was getting bossier and bossier and he didn't like feeling like she was his ball and chain already. He's _seventeen_! He was still eager for adventure and mischief and -

Teddy received a hard smack to the back of his head. "Oi! Not you too! Wake the fuck up and drink your damn beer!" Parker delivered another firm blow to his arm this time for good measure.

The conversation changed completely. Parker started on Quidditch, which Abe excitedly joined in on, along with a few comments from Ronia, and Teddy forced himself to contribute because any more thinking and he was going to do something stupid.

By the time Professor Rigo walked over, the group was collectively tipsy. Ronia seemed to have the most wits about her, standing up the moment he walked over without swaying and spoke in her low, clear, rough voice with precision, "Are you done?"

Professor Rigo lifted his normally-jolly eyes from the parchments he held and Ronia saw that something was disturbing him greatly.

"What is it?" she asked.

"There are Dark things happening on these pages." He thrust the parchment forward, forcing them into Ronia's hands. "Whatever is going on, I'd thank you to keep me out of it from here on out. I'm a teacher, I can't be dealing with such Dark magic…even if I do teach at Durmstrang." He gave a half-hearted rueful smile. "I will see you once whatever mess you've gotten yourself into is over, Ronia." He tipped the brim of his hat cordially and walked out of the pub.

Abe, Parker, and Teddy were all watching the exchange as the foreboding of the professor's words sobered them up. Ronia's back was to them and her head was tipped down, looking at the translations.

Then she slowly turned around and she looked at each of the boys' faces carefully and with a coldness in her eyes. With an eerie calm she said, "Where did you find these pages?"

None of the boys answered.

"Let's try this again," she said, her words short and clipped. "Who do these parchments belong to?"

Again, she received no answer.

"You _idiots_," she snarled, her face curling into a furious expression. "These are Freckles's, aren't they? That's why you couldn't go to her to translate them, yes? Why you've all been acting strange! How did you get them? You _will_ tell me. _Now_."

Exchanging looks among them, a silent decision for the truth was made and Abe cleared his throat. He was usually the one to speak in situations like these. He was the wordsmith, after all.

Abe retold the story about how they wanted to find out who Freckles's secret boyfriend was and their plan to get into the dorms and find evidence.

"How did you get into the dorms after hours?" she demanded, the same way Professor Malfoy did when someone was misbehaving and was about to deduct a hundred points from whichever House.

Abe hesitated and swallowed. "Well, Parker found a glitch in the wards. It isn't effective on animals and I -"

"You're an Animagus," Ronia finished, unsurprised. "And you transfigured Teddy into another animal."

All their jaws dropped.

"How -?"

Ronia held up her hand to stop Parker's astonishment. "I always wondered why Abe smelt like a bird. I had my suspicions. As for Teddy, I saw him looking at some transfiguration books in the library."

Teddy flinched. Of course she remembered. She didn't even blink, though.

"You three really are the biggest idiots I know. If you'd looked at the top of ever page closely, you'd find the name Ophelia and at the bottom a sign off of someone named 'Gerard'. They're letters, not diary entries. From her boyfriend. But they haven't exactly been exchanging your usual sweet nothings and affections. Just as Ambrus said, there are Dark things soaked in these pages."

…~oOo~…

A/N. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!

~ So Long And Thanks For All The Fish ~


	9. Old Scars

A/N. Ohhh no. Ronia's pissed.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. I also don't own a baby wallaby. Mores the pity.

…~oOo~…

Chapter Nine: Old Scars

Back in the boys' dorm room, Ronia really laid it into them.'

"Do you have any clue what Freckles would _do_ to you if she found out you'd been snooping around her room?" Ronia shouted after putting a _Muffliato_ on the room so she could scream at them to her heart's content. "She would _kill _you. She would hand you on her walls, chained by your pinky toes and _Crucio_ you every hour."

"That seems a bit harsh for my sister's taste," Parker said doubtfully.

"Oh, you're right. That is what _I_ would do to you," the werewolf snarled. "You invaded not only her privacy but my own! How _dare_ you? I have half a mind to skin each of you and make you into a new pair of boots and matching gloves!" Ronia took a deep breath, trying to control herself. The Wolf was emerging and last time that happened…well, she'd snogged Ted Lupin. She could feel the tremors rocking through her, her fingers itching to wrap around one of the boys' necks and squeeze the life out of them.

Ronia took another breath and continued, "If you'd just asked me to ask her….or something. Anything other than going into her room and finding these papers! Now you've gotten yourself involved in whatever Freckles has been toying with!"

"What exactly are on those papers?" Teddy finally asked, standing up from where he was standing on the bed. "You can't be all that mad about us going into the dorm. You weren't even there and your side of the room is cleaner than a monk's cell."

"Excuse me if I don't like stupid boys poking around my room because they know I'll be out somewhere turning into a monster," she yelled. "And what is on these papers is _none of your concern_. These papers are between Freckles and Gerard, and they are going to _stay that way_! You'd do well to stay out of it and forget you ever found them."

"What? Do you think we can't handle whatever if one them? You think we're too weak?" Teddy demanded, his veins started to run with fire. Ronia was treating them like children. Maybe it was the butterbeer, but he wasn't going to stand by and let her push them around like she's in charge.

"Yes, I do!" she growled. "And do you know why? Because _everyone_ is too weak for Dark Magic! There hasn't been a wizard in history that has benefited by practicing the Dark Arts. We're all already contaminated by touching these!" She furiously shook the papers in her hand. "Freckles is a smart, sweet girl who has gotten herself mixed into something that none of you can do anything about! I'll do my best to diffuse the situation, talk to her, but you all need to stay out of it!"

"We aren't your _cubs_, Ronia!" Teddy snapped, his hair turning bright red and his eyes turning black. "You can't tell us what and what not to do!"

"_I can and I will_!"

"Why are you so different, then? Why are going to be the one to get involved? What makes you _so damned special_?"

"You IDIOT. IT ISN'T THAT I'M SPECIAL, IT'S THAT I'M NOT."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Teddy bellowed.

Ronia's chest was rising and falling in rapid heaves, her face turning red and her scars curling from her sneering, her amber eyes flashing. "I AM A WEREWOLF, TED LUPIN. I HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE. I CANNOT BE MARKED BY THINGS ANY DARKER THAN I ALREADY AM, UNDERSTAND? NOW YOU WILL SIT THE _FUCK_ BACK DOWN, SHUT THE _FUCK_ UP, AND DO AS I SAY. ONE STUPID MOMENT OF WEAKNESS ON MY PART IN THE LIBRARY GIVES YOU NO RIGHT TO _DARE _STAND UP TO ME."

And there it was, out in the open. Teddy was godsmacked. His bones had rattled with her bellows and now he could fell his face drain of color, his eyes return to light blue, and his hair mellow to a mousy brown.

It took a moment of pause after her speech when Ronia went into a coughing fit, bending over and holding her stomach. Her Wolf had possessed her so completely, she could hear the timbre of her voice deepen and rasp harder than usual, showing how completely she'd lost control. Her Wolf had declared itself as Alpha and now she felt her knees quaking while she composed herself.

Swallowing and wiping her mouth from the coughing, Ronia stood up, forcing her spine to straighten and lift her chin to look Teddy in the eyes. "Do you understand?" she said solemnly.

Shaking his head, Teddy scowled and looked up at the ceiling beseechingly before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

The Wolf side of Ronia told her to go after her pack member. She was Alpha, he had not been dismissed. In the werewolf world, that would mean severe punishment. But Ted wasn't a werewolf, the human side of Ronia reminded the Wolf.

_That doesn't mean you're finished yelling at him, though, _the Wolf purred. _It's perfectly human to go after a friend, and it's perfectly Wolf to do so too. The Pack never splits, not like this. _

"You two stay right here," Ronia hissed at Parker and Abe who both looked petrified. They didn't nod, but she had a feeling they wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon either and Ronia jogged out of the room, following Teddy's scent. He had just entered the common room when she snagged the back of his jumper and stopped him. "Wait just a second, Lupin -"

"What?" he growled at her.

Something inside her flared. How dare he speak to her that way? _She_ was in charge here. She mentally through some water on the flames taking root in her and said, "We're not done with our conversation."

Teddy let out a bark of a laugh. "_Conversation_? Last I checked, a 'conversation' involved two consenting parties! You were just commanding. And I don't have to sit there and listen." He sneered and turned to walk away, but she swooped right in front of him, blocking his path with a determined look on her face. "Get out of my way, Ronia."

"No. Not until you explain why the fuck you think you know better than me what this situation calls for," Ronia said. "Go ahead! Outline for me your experience with Dark Arts. Go on, what makes you an _expert_?" She spat the last word.

"This has nothing to do with my 'expertise' in Dark Magic," Teddy said, his words dripping with venom. "It's to do with you thinking that you're so goddamn untouchable. It's like you're not even human. You think you're better -"

"You could not be more wrong," she cut him off sharply. "I am not better, I am _lesser_. I am worth nothing, I have no future. If anything happens to me for my meddling in Dark things, it is no loss to this world. And you're right, Lupin, and I'm _not_ human. _I am a filthy, useless, half-bred, disgusting monster_."

"You are not and neither was my father!" Ted shouted. "Whatever Durmstrang taught you about yourself, they were wrong. I've seen you, Ronia. I've caught glimpses of the _real_ you." He grabbed her by her shoulders and gave her a small shake. "You are not what you think you are. You are _human_. And you aren't alone."

Ronia pulled herself from his hands and glared daggers at him.

Teddy pushed on, his words gaining strength. "Why don't you see it? You act as if nothing affects you, like nothing can hurt you. But you _can_ be hurt, Ronia. I saw it on the first night of term when you talked about your mother. You _can_ be affected. I saw it in your eyes in the library. You have desires and fears and wants and needs just like everyone else. You're not the lone wolf you claim to be because you want companionship. You may be self-sacrificing, but that doesn't stop you from _wanting_."

Ronia still didn't say anything, just stared at him blankly.

"So," Teddy said, his words draining of passion. Now he was just tired. "You aren't playing hero any longer. Whatever it is Freckles had been dabbling in with this Gerard guy, we'll be there with you. Because you _do _have a future. And you have friends. And you deserve to be able to pursue whatever it is you want and need, but you can't do that if you're dead."

What happened next, Teddy felt in slow motion. Ronia reached up, touching one of Teddy's cheek softly before pressed her unmarred cheek against his bare one and nuzzled him gently. It was a very wolfish action, Teddy thought with a grin. He knew immediately that it was her canine-like way to show affection and he accepted it.

"_What the hell_?"

Both Teddy and Ronia broke apart at the sound of such a high-pitched screech and turned to find Victoire, standing at the base of the girls' dormitories steps.

"_Her_, Teddy?" Victoire shrieked. "Of all the girls in the entire school, you cheat on me with _her_? _I would have rather caught you shagging Abraham for Merlin's sake_!"

"Victoire!" Teddy broke in. "We weren't even _kissing_. We were -"

"Oh, yes," Victoire hissed with a sour smile. "You were _nuzzling_. How _sweet. _I knew you've been acting strange but to find out that you're cheating on me with the werewolf Durmstrang bitch -"

"You hold your tongue, Weasley," Ronia said harshly. "Don't be more stupid than I already know you to be. Your precious boyfriend isn't cheating on you. And it's funny that you should speak badly of my condition when your father isn't too far behind myself."

"How did you -"

"I can smell it on you, you fool," Ronia said with a roll of her eyes. "You'd think the daughter of a demi-wolf would be less ignorant. Surely, growing up, you father would nuzzle your cheek in a show of affection, yes? No need answer, your face says it all. Of course he did. It's a wolf thing. We all do, part-werewolf or full. So shut up for Christ's sake and apologize to your boyfriend."

Teddy held up his hand. "There's no need for apology. We're over, Victoire. I'm sick of your berating and talking down to me. We aren't working out and I don't want to be with you anymore."

Both Victoire and Ronia were shocked speechless.

"What?" Victoire finally piped.

"You heard me. We're done. I'm breaking up with you," Teddy said, unwavering.

For some reason, the Wolf inside Ronia growled in possessive glee. She ignored it.

Victoire whipped out her wand, and in a flash, Ronia was standing in front of Teddy, and arm out protectively, the other bearing her one wand, stretched forward in preparation.

_No one threatens our Pack, _the Wolf growled.

"Put away the wand, Weasley," Ronia said. In the corner of her eye, she saw Teddy holding out his wand, stretched out over Ronia's shoulder. "Defeating you alone would be easy, but with Teddy on my side, it'd be a piece of cake."

Victoire Weasley paused, slowly began lowering her wand, but before anyone could blink she was throwing out a hex that hit Ronia in the face and knocked her backward. Teddy caught Ronia, but that didn't stop the terrible scream that ripped its way from Ronia's throat. Her hands were covering her face, but blood was seeping through her fingers and sliding down her arms.

Ronia was still screaming in pain and Teddy shouted, "_What the hell did you do to her_?"

Victoire looked just as stunned. "I…I don't know! I didn't mean…I wasn't aiming for her face!"

Ronia had stopped screaming, but she was still moaning and she slowly took her hands away from her face. Whatever the hex had been, it opened the scars of Ronia's face like they had never even healed. With shaking hands, Ronia looked out of one eye - the one that wasn't forced closed by the reopened wounds - and her blood-drenched hands.

"I've got to get her to Madame Pomfrey!" Teddy said, carefully picking Ronia up. Cradled in his arms, the blood seeped into her shirt.

"What can I do?" Victoire asked, her entire body trembling while tears formed in her eyes.

"You can turn yourself into McGonagall," Teddy hissed. He'd never held any type of hatred toward his now-ex-girlfriend, but it was certainly stirring inside of him.

Victoire froze with fear. "B-but -"

"No 'buts'," Teddy said, hurrying from the common room. "Either you do it, or I will." And he ran out of the painting towards the hospital wing.

…

Parker and Abe had heard all of the shouting, but really hadn't wanted to test Ronia's command to stay where they are. She wasn't the type of person you wanted to disobey, they knew that. But after the agonizing screams died down, they looked at one another for a long moment with an expression that said, "Someone could be dying."

They leaped up from the bed and ran to the common room to find Victoire, alone, standing in front of a big puddle of blood.

"Holy shit, Victoire!" Parker said. "What the bloody hell happened?"

"I…Teddy…the werewolf…all so fast…" she stammered uselessly.

"Wait. Is this Teddy's blood?" Abe asked.

Victoire shook her head shakily.

Abe's eyes grew huge. "Ronia's?"

The tears started pouring down Victoire's beautiful face as she nodded. "They're heading towards the hospital wing."

Abe and Parker both took off. By the time they arrived at the hospital wing, Ronia was just being sat down on a cot by Teddy who was now soaked with red, as well as Ronia. Madame Pomfrey was fluttering about in a panic, getting all the supplies she needed and hurrying back over.

"Mr. Lupin, what in the name of Merlin happened?" Madame Pomfrey asked as she set away dabbing a blood clotting salve onto Ronia's face and handing her a vial to drink.

"It was an accident," Ronia grumbled, obviously more pissed off than in pain any more. "Teddy had nothing to do with it, it was my fault."

"You mean to say that you somehow managed to rip open scars that have been closed for ever a decade?" Madame Pomfrey howled, rolling her eyes. "What do you take my for? An idiot? The whole story, no lies, Miss Vargstrom!"

Teddy opened his mouth, but Ronia pushed her palm against it to shut him up. "I'll tell you everything," Ronia said, "but not until my face stops bleeding. It's rather annoying to have blooding dripping into your eyes constantly."

The bleeding eventually stopped and her cuts were closed with butterfly strips and a sealing spell. The medi-witch was sad to report that the scars will be darker than they were originally now that they had been opened twice. Ronia shrugged like it didn't matter but Teddy could see her soft, but morose sigh.

Teddy, Parker and Abe all sat and watched the healing and stayed out of Madame Pomfrey's way.

Ronia hopped off of her cot and said to the medi-witch simply, "I was in a duel. I do believe I lost." That was her only explanation before walking out of the hospital wing.

Teddy booked it out of the hospital wing and towards the Headmistress's office. The gargoyle in front of the door said, "Name?"

"Ted Lupin."

"House?"

"Jesus, is there any other Ted Lupin in the school?" Teddy said, infuriated. He needed to talk to the Headmistress.

The gargoyle paused. "You may enter…" And the entrance to McGonagall's office spun open and Ted hurried inside. Running up the short spiral stairs, he stood at the door and knocked hard, tapping his foot impatiently.

The door opened on its own and he was immediately saying, "McGonagall, something happened in the common room today and -"

But he stopped at the sight of who was in the office already, sitting across from their headmistress. A watery-eyed, slouching Victoire.

"I'm assuming you are here for the same reason as Miss Weasley?" McGonagall said, giving the blonde prefect a very disappointed look. "I do believe she has explained enough of the happenings in the Gryffindor common room. Miss Weasley will have her Prefect badge taken away and will be out of the running to be Head Girl next year. It was a terrible thing you did, Victoire. A new student already outcast by the entire school and you took upon yourself to only make it worse? I am deeply disappointed in you."

Victoire let out a sob and cradled her face in her hands, nodding. "I know, Headmistress."

"You are dismissed, Miss Weasley. You stay, Mr. Lupin, I'd like a word with you."

Teddy moved aside to let his sobbing ex-girlfriend out the door and walked forward to sit in the seat she vacated.

McGonagall sighed and said, "Unfortunately for the health of the teeth of all the students, Albus left me a very strict letter in his passing to vow to always offer every student who comes into the office candy. Sadly I am a woman of my word, so would you care for a butterscotch beetle?" She held forward a glass dish of writhing yellow candies.

"Um…no thank you," he said tentatively.

"I don't blame you," she said, setting the crystal dish down. "They're ghastly. Now, Victoire told me everything that happened this evening, but I would appreciate a confirmation. Victoire sent a curse at Miss Vargstrom that reopened all the scars of her face?"

"Yes."

"And you brought Miss Vargstrom to the hospital wing? What did Madame Pomfrey have to say about the wounds?"

"She said that they were as if she just got them. That they'd heal darker this time around."

McGonagall shook her head sadly. "Such a sad thing. Poor girl is having a hard enough time. But I have noticed your little group has welcomed her in?"

Teddy nodded.

"I thank you for that. I admit, I was worried about admitting her into the school." His old Headmistress gave a sad smile. "You know who your little group reminds me of? Your father's group of friends when he attended Hogwarts. The Marauders, I believe they called themselves. Actually, if I were being specific, I'd say your group is a perfect blend between the Marauders and the 'Golden Trio' as everyone called them."

Teddy smiled at this. "Does Ronia remind you of my dad? They're both werewolves, after all."

"No, not at all. Your father was much too gentle. No, you remind me more of your father. Parker reminds me much of Sirius Black and Abraham does resemble James Potter in many ways, such as his intelligence and his knack for causing trouble with his friends." She gave him a wink. "You're like Remus because even though you know you'll end up getting tied up in their schemes, you try to be the voice of reason anyway."

"How did you know -?"

"I let you boys get away with far more than you think I do," she said firmly. "But don't you dare take advantage of my generosity, Ted Remus Lupin, because the moment I see you three doing real damage, it's the first train home. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," he readily answered with a fervent nod. McGonagall never joked with that sort of thing.

"Good. Now, is there anything else you'd like to talk about? I have some free time, which never happens, so if there's anything pressing you'd like to discuss, I'll happily order a pot of tea."

Teddy smiled at the woman he'd mentally dubbed as his godmother all of these years and said, "Nothing comes to mind, but…I'd love to have tea with you anyway, if that's alright?"

McGonagall gave him a sincere smile. "It is more than alright, dear."

…~oOo~…

A/N. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! IF YOU DO, I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER!

~ So Long And Thanks For All The Fish ~


	10. Not A Regular Human

A/N. Chapter Ten is here and though this chapter is on the short side, a LOT happens. You learn quite a bit about what's been going on and a little about Ronia's history and family.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. I know. It's sad.

…~oOo~…

Chapter Ten: Not A Regular Human

Ronia was still sitting in a far back corner of the library two and a half hours later. She didn't want to move and her face hurt. More than it was sad, the new/old wounds were annoying as fuck. She'd already gone through this once, to have to do it again was tedious. And on top of that, on wounds like these, Dittany didn't work. It had been too long since when she originally go them and on top of that they were werewolf infected marks. It was way different than the usual cuts and slices.

Deciding she needed to stop sulking, she reached to the inside the of her jacket and pulled out the letters from Freckles's boyfriend.

A lot of the translations were very obscure, the writer obviously taking care to not be thorough in case they were found. But one word came up often.

Veil. As in _the_ Veil. Ronia shuddered. Nothing good could come from reading the dozen or so letters, just because of the many mentions of the world after death.

But Ronia was destined to die before thirty anyway. So she began reading.

…

Lying on his back in his bedroom alone, Teddy certainly didn't expect Ronia to fly into the room like the wind of a tornado, slamming the door behind her and looking like she'd just ran a marathon.

"Lupin!" she exclaimed, sounding relieved. Then she got angry again. "I've been looking for you everywhere! Where the fuck -"

"You've been looking everywhere?" Teddy said, raising an eyebrow. "And you didn't think you look in my _room_?"

"Don't be smart with me, boy," she growled, pointing a finger at his threateningly. "I have information and if you want to hear it, you're going to have to behave."

Teddy considered pointing out to her that between to two if one were more likely to misbehave than it would be her, but kept his mouth shut. It was a good move. He nodded, prompting her to begin talking.

"Freckles boyfriend," she said, holding up the letters that she had been studying for almost an hour. "He isn't what we thought we were."

"You mean he isn't Slytherin?"

"No, I mean he's not _anything_ we thought he was," she said firmer. "While he possesses some serious Slytherin qualities, he's not even a student here. Yet, he lives here. It's a conundrum.

"Listen. I always knew it was strange that Freckles was always gone in the middle of the night," Ronia continued. "I should have been more suspicious, because now she's in deep with something bad. Whoever this Gerard Forest is, in the most recent letter he was trying to convince Freckles to steal potion ingredients from Slughorn's stores. And this list." She sat down on the edge of Teddy's bed next to him, shuffling through the papers urgently until she found the right one. "This list of ingredients…there's some really expensive and dangerous stuff in here. Poisonous things, flammable components, and some in large doses can be lethal. I don't recognize this potion, but I know one this: Even with the magic component, there is no way a regular human could consume this and survive."

"So he's asking her to brew a poison?" Teddy asked, bewildered.

"Not exactly…I don't know. I'm going to need to look into it more. I would as Slughorn, but if I did and then Freckles agreed to steal the ingredients then he would think it was me."

Then something dawned on Teddy. "You say that no _regular _human could take the potion and live…What type of human could? Like…a werewolf, maybe?"

Ronia considered it. "I'm not sure. They would have to take it during their transformation, when their body is most resilient. Even then, it would be extremely dangerous. With my knowledge of potions, I'd say that the drinker of this potion would already have to be dead."

Eyes like saucers, Teddy said, "What do you mean, like a vampire?"

"Yes, a vampire…or a ghost."

"Ghosts can't drink potions."

"I know that. That's why this doesn't make sense. Freckles isn't dating a vampire, that much is clear. But, as I said, the only other candidate is a ghost." Ronia looked absolutely stumped.

"How do you know he's not a vampire?" Teddy asked curiously. "She does meet him only at night. And this potion requires blood."

"This line is why." She points at something on one of the letters. "Here, he says, 'In my state, I cannot sleep, so I spend many restless hours walking in the forest, soaking up the sunlight and wondering what you're doing in your classes that day'. Whatever Gerard his, he can't sleep and he can be out in sunlight. Not a vampire."

Letting out a long sigh, Teddy rubbed his temples. "This is harder than I thought it would be. I never imagined that whoever Freckles has been dating would be a bloody phantom."

"Well, the good news is, we know the next date that they plan to meet in person. It finds out that though she's gone every night, they only ever see each other once a fortnight. Otherwise, they leave letters for one another is something they just call 'the Room'." Ronia pulled the paper with the date on it. She'd circled it three times. "They just met a few days ago, so we have almost two weeks before they meet again."

"But what about the potion?"

"I'll pay attention to the letters. I'll try my hand at picking up Hungarian, maybe ask Loki a favor. When she goes to sleep, I'll slip a peek at the earliest letter and see what she says about stealing the ingredients for him." She shrugged. "This is Freckles we're talking about. She's smarter than to steal from a teacher, but this guy is manipulative. That much I can tell. At the very least, she steals the ingredients, but it looks to take about two moon cycles to brew, so he can't take it this next time they meet. We'll have to watch her closely over the brewing period."

"Abe knows a lot about potions," Teddy said, looking at the potion-making process again, looking down the list and directions. Ronia was right, this was a really delicate potion. "More than Slughorn, I'd bet. He should take a look at this."

Ronia hesitated. "Are you sure you want to get Abe involved in this?"

Teddy nodded. "Parker too. Freckles is his sister and Abe's the smartest person I know."

The Russian girl swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "There's one more thing I need to tell you about these letters." She pulled out the scariest paper out of all of them with a slight shake in her hand. "This one. Vampire or ghost, Gerard is very familiar with the Veil. He claims…we he claims to have gone through."

"But…" The blood in Teddy's veins was ice water. "Once you go through the Veil, you can't come back as even a ghost."

"Exactly. More than claiming to having gone through…he claims to have come back."

…

"Oh, this isn't your usual medicine cabinet potion, that's for bloody sure," Abe said, reading through the list with fear in his eyes. He rubbed the side of his scruffy jaw and looked up at his three friends in front of him.

The quartet was sitting in the backmost part of the library, sitting on the ground in between a pair of shelves with a broken lamp over it, making their light sparse. Abe was sitting in the window seat, the nighttime sky behind him. It was after dinner and Freckles was off to a Prefect meeting, so Teddy and Ronia took this time to fill their friends in.

"I knew that," Ronia said with a roll of her eyes.

"I don't know if you two realized this, but this process for potions is very unique. I've only ever seen it used for one other potion…" Abe mused.

"What potion is that?" Parker asked. He wasn't really taking all of this information well. He looked like he would rip someone's throat out at the drop of a hat.

"It's a variation of the Mandrake Restorative Draught," Abe explained. "I asked Madame Pomfrey about it when I was doing my essay on Mandragora because she used it when she was restoring a petrified ghost, back before the Second War. See, ghosts can't drink potions obviously, so the only potion is made into a vapor. It's a very tedious process, but the only way a ghost can consume it."

"So," Ronia said slowly, "this potion is going to be…a vapor?"

"Yes," Abe confirmed.

"Other than the ghost thing," Teddy inquired, "why would someone need a potion as a vapor?" He needed to know all the possibilities.

Abe shrugged. "I haven't the foggiest. The only other reason I could imagine were to poison someone without having to put it in their food. Making poison airborne could be very effective. But it can't be done for every potion.

"You see, potions have balances. Some have very fragile balances, others have more flexible balances. Because the Mandrake Restorative Draught can't be rendered useless by adding the needed components to make it a vapor, it has a more flexible balance. Essentially, by making a potion a vapor, it's like adding one potion to another. So potions like…Wolfsbane, let's say. Adding any additional ingredients to Wolfsbane will negate its effects and the drinker will have to go through its normal Change."

Ronia was nodding. "I learned that the hard way when I was small. I tried adding sugar."

"Exactly. Wolfsbane has a delicate balance," Abe continued, reaching into his bag for his textbooks and pulls out his Advanced Potions text. He flipped through the pages. "Ah! See this? Felix Felicis can't be made a vapor either because it would wreck the Felix."

Abe turned back to the potion in the letter. "This potion…I don't know what it is, but there's no telling how making it a vapor will effect it. And it already has the potential to kill a man, so it really is a mystery."

Ronia smirked humorlessly. "He's a ghost. I know he is. He _has_ to be. He claims to have been through the Veil. He needs a potion that no living person could take. Said potion needs to be made into a vapor, which would only be beneficial to a ghost. It's all pointing to him being a disembodied spirit."

Everyone soaked this in for a long minute.

Parker, who'd been fairly quiet this entire time, declared, "Ghost or not, I'm still gonna fucking kill him."

…~oOo~…

By Quidditch tryouts, Ronia was fully recovered from her transformation and her face was almost completely healed, so she was feeling good. This reflected in her performance of catching the Snitch in record time and soaking in the godsmacked, jaw-dropped looks of co-Captain Parker and the team Captain Theo Greenwood. They apparently hadn't been expecting such a performance.

"You're on the team!" Greenwood immediately said, scribbling on the clipboard frantically like if he didn't get her name down fast enough that she'd disappear. "First practice is this upcoming Sunday, six in the morning sharp."

Giving a nod, Ronia marched off to pitch.

She ran right into a familiar face, the Captain of the Slytherin team. With him was another boy that she did not recognize, but wore a co-Captain badge.

"Loki," she acknowledged. "What are you doing around the pitch?"

Ronia's half-brother had his hair tied back in a ponytail against his neck and his dark eyes sparkled with energy. "Sytherin's tryouts are right after your Gryffindors drag their slow arses off the field. And you?"

"Just tried out for the position of Gryffindor Seeker. I made it." She gave him a sly smile.

Loki froze almost undetectably before saying, "Congratulations."

"Oh, my dear brother, is that…" - she took a deep, dramatic inhale - "_fear_ I smell on you? Worried it'll be just like old times, eh? Don't worry, I'm sure you've improved."

The co-Captain of Loki's team looked over at him. "What is she talking about, Vargstrom?"

"He didn't tell you about how I used to whip his ass on a broomstick?" Ronia said, obviously amused. "When we were both little _deti _in Russia our dad used to release a Snitch in the yard and send us both after it. What's the current score again?" She feigned forgetfulness.

Loki's glare was murderous.

"Oh, yes!" Ronia said, pretending to just remember. "92 for me and…3 for you. And one of those times you managed to get it first, you jinxed my broom."

"We aren't children any longer," Loki sneered, saying it all in Russian. He reverted back to English when he said, "We'll see who's the better flier at our first match, _da_?"

"_Da_," Ronia confirmed. She started walking away from him backwards. She spat out in Russian, "I don't know how you can be the better flier, though, when you didn't even have the courage to go to Durmstrang and begged Father to transfer you to Hogwarts before you even turned eleven."

Loki's sneer deepened, his hand twitching towards his wand.

"_Do svidaniya,_" Ronia said with a wave, walking away. She smiled to herself, knowing that she would be getting hell from her father for provoking her brother later.

At dinner that night, sure enough Ronia received a letter.

Completely in Russian, it said this,

_My lovely Ronia, _

_Please try your best to stop taunting your brother. You know how sensitive he is. And provoking him in front of his friend is just impolite! I suggest you apologize to his face or send him an apology gift. You know his weakness for sweets, so I would send him some chocolate cauldrons if I were you. Not that you especially want his forgiveness, but it doesn't hurt to be on his good side. I hear he's made quite the impression on his House. He is dubbed the Prince of Slytherin, so I would prefer if you did not tarnish his reputation in such a powerful House as the snakes. _

_How is your year so far? I know you must miss Durmstrang. Ambrus told me about your request that he visit and about how you got a few drinks together and talked about old times. I'm proud of you, Ronia, for reaching out to him. I know he is not someone you'd typical choose as a partner, but I hope you reconsider because he does care deeply for you. _

_Loki writes to me about the friends you've made. He says they are a bad choice as far as friends go, but I assume that his opinion has much to do with House rivalry. You have a good judgment of character, so I have a feeling they are good children and you should invite them to our England home for a day during winter holiday. Helga would love to have more people to cook for, after all. She is getting sick of it just being me when I'm in the country for business._

_I wanted to avoid talking about this, but as a father I'm afraid I must address this. Loki tells me about the hex that reopened your wounds. I am aware of how you hate it when I bring up your scars, but still I need to. What exactly happened? How are you healing? Did the person who hexed you receive appropriate punishment? If not, I will be in England in a second. I'm serious, Ronia. If you are having a difficult time at Hogwarts, I will come and talk to the Headmistress in person. If it comes to it, I will take you out of school. _

_After all, I know you'd rather give up education altogether than go to Beauxbaton's. Frankly, I'd rather pitch myself off of a building into the ocean before sending you to that all-girls school. And no offense, your French has always been terrible anyway._

_Your warrant in Russia has been de-prioritized, so for now they have stopped searching. From what I hear, there is no news of crossing borders for you. They would not be granted permission even if they tried. You are safe there, my sweet Ronia Delling Vargstrom. _

_I love you, my daughter. _

_Love,_

_Your Father_

...~oOo~...

A/N. PLEASE REVIEW. PLEASE PLEASE DO. I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT.

~ So Long And Thanks For All The Fish ~


	11. How Thieves Are Made

A/N. HULLO EVERYONE! A lot of you will love this chapter! A little bit of smutty smut towards the end :D (I did NOT post the entire chapter on here, because I have no desire to be banned from FFN, so all you have to do to read all of the chapter in all its sexy goodness is private message me and i will send you the whole sexy scene, details and all).

I HAVE A BIT OF GOOD NEWS FOR ALL OF YOU! If you read my other story Prisoner, then you might already know this, but I've just found out that I'm pregnant! YEY! In the past, i've mentioned how I'm a poor college student, but I've just got a GREAT new job and the father of my child is employed well too and we are so excited for the baby :D Just thought I'd share.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

...~oOo~…

Chapter Eleven: How Thieves Are Made

Saturday, after a rigorous practice where three kids had to be sent to the hospital wing and one had to sit on the sidelines, Parker realized that his sister had been right and letting Ronia run half of the practices was, indeed, a bad idea.

"Oh, stop your whining," Ronia said with an eye roll as they walked back to the castle. Teddy had sat in the stands and watched the practice and agreed with Parker that she was…brutal. Not in the good way. "All of them will be fine before next practice and maybe they won't be such pansies," she said with a shrug. She took a bite of the sandwich she had in her hand.

"How can you eat?" Parker said, shocked. "My stomach won't settle down from the drills you made us do! I feel like I'm going to vomit and I haven't even eaten anything!"

"Well, that's the problem isn't it," she said haughtily. "You should have eaten earlier and maybe you wouldn't be so nauseas." Ronia chomped down on her sandwich ferociously and Parker and Abe suddenly felt pity for the sandwich.

Teddy stared at her incredulously. "Are you aware of how terrifying you are?"

"I'm not terrifying," she said dismissively. "Everyone here is just too sensitive. At Durmstrang, I was one of the _timid _ones. It's true. None of you could last a single day at Durmstrang. Now, let's get to the library. Abe said to meet him there after we wrapped up practice." Her pace widened and the boys matched it.

Walking through the corridor and up the stair cases towards their desired floor, the trio halted as the stairs beneath them began to shift and move in an opposite direction.

"You stupid bloody stairs!" Parker said, punching the wooden railing. "We want the library, you wanker!"

Teddy gave him a blunt look. "Not even wizards look sane when they start yelling at staircases. Please stop."

Ronia smirked and Parker stopped, huffing his aggravation, his face looking like a boiling tea kettle.

"Where is it taking us?" Ronia asked no one in particular, putting both hands in the pockets of her trousers.

Teddy shrugged, but wasn't really paying attention to the direction of the stairs. No, he was looking at how fit Ronia looked wearing the Quidditch uniform. She'd neglected to put on the outer cloak for practice, so her red and gold jersey was tight to her body as well as the black broom-riding trousers and boots. Her hair was windblown and stuck up in some places, but it made sense for her hair to be wild - it reflected her personality.

"What are you staring at?" Ronia asked, the smallest of bites in her voice. It wasn't that she minded him looking at her, but such a lingering stare kind of freaked her out. She knew she wasn't all that great to look at, so when people looked at her for a long time, she expected them to be staring at her scars.

"Nothing," Teddy quickly said, just as the stairs decided to stop, finally, two floors above the library. Parker was the first to leap off of the staircase and gave it a big flipping-off.

"He's always hated the moving stairs," Teddy informed Ronia. "Since First Year."

"It's not bloody natural!" Parker defended, marching away.

"We go to a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Ronia stated slowly, "and you think the movement of the _stairs_ is unnatural?"

"Shut up," Parker grumbled as they marched down the corridor, looking for the stone stairwell that didn't move.

Then they heard a round of jolly laughter just around the corner, followed by the familiar high-pitched yells of, "PUT ME DOWN! PLEASE PUT ME DOWN!"

"Bowie," Parker mumbled to himself as they all hurried around the corner to find an interesting scene before them.

Bowie White, in his yellow and black Hufflepuff cloaks, hanging upside down, both legs kicking in the air, displaying his pair of bright purple underpants. Parker was torn between horror and hilarity at the sight. And hanging upside-down right along side the Puff boy was James Potter, who wore House pride red-and-gold under-shorts.

Peeves was floating around the two, laughing hysterically and making raspberry noises.

Parker and Teddy were quick to go for their wands, but Ronia held out her arms and pushed both of their hands down. "Give them a chance," Ronia said, watching on intently. "If things get out of hand, we'll handle it. But for now, let's see what they can do."

Teddy was more reluctant to agree than Parker, who was more than ready to see the boys further humiliated.

Peeves was singing a song about underwear when James whipped out his wand and pointed it at the poltergeist and said loudly and clearly, "Let us down. Now."

Teddy grinned with pride at how confident his little brother sounded even when Bowie next to him was crying, the tears rolling down his forehead and to the floor like raindrops. Parker shook his head sadly at his brother.

"Hoo hoo hoo!" Peeves cackled. "You think your wand will help you now!" Tauntingly, Peeves floated up to the ceiling himself and said cross-legged upside-down like a bat and stared James in the eye. "Whatever you throw will go right through me, ickle Firsties!"

James blanched and looked over at Bowie beseechingly. Figuring it was the least he could do, James reached out and gave his weeping friend's hand a squeeze.

"Perhaps I should take your underpants off?" Peeves laughed.

"NOOOO!" both boys screamed in unison.

"Okay, now is a good time to interfere," Ronia said as their underwear started to move northward. She whipped out her wand blindingly past and pronounced, "Accio James! Accio Bowie!"

With their screams, the two boys began flying towards the trio - but Ronia leapt to the side and allowed them to barrel into their older brothers, knocking all four of them over like bowling pins.

Peeves was still laughing but had a devious look on his face. Next thing she knew, Ronia was floating up toward the ceiling. She wordlessly sent a spell towards Peeves and a massive silver shield erupted from her wand and she fell to the floor but held it, pushing Peeves away and then with a big push and a shove of energy, Peeves was shoved backwards through a wall by the shield.

Ronia picked herself up off the ground, brushing off her knees and elbows. "Stupid poltergeists. Bloody ghosts. I hate them."

The four boys were off the ground as well. Bowie and James were fixing one another's robes and Parker and Teddy were doing the same for each other, brushing dust off the other's head and straightening collars. Ronia chuckled at how adorable the boys were, making sure the other was all nice and clean.

"I do too," Parker hissed, roughing up Teddy's hair, dirt puffing out of the blue mop. "Nothing but a fecking nuisance. What did you two do to annoy Peeves?"

"_Annoy Peeves_?" James demanded, eyes huge with incredulity at the older Irish boy. "Are you bloody obtuse? No one _provokes_ Peeves! We're First Years, he just attacked us because we're new! We were walking along alone, and heard Mrs. Noris howling because she got herself stuck in one of the suits of armor. We went over and helped her out and next thing we know, we're dangling from the ceiling!"

"Well, that explains it," Teddy confirmed. "You helped Mrs. Noris out, is why. Peeves puts her in the suits of armor all the time and you ruined his prank so he attacked." He shrugged. "It's okay, there wasn't anyway for you to know."

Bowie was sniffling and wiping his eyes furiously. James patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"Bowie, go clean your face," Parker said. "And don't let any Slytherins see you, understand? They'll make your life a hell and they won't hesitate to take off your knickers in front of half the school."

Both Bowie and James's faces turned candy apple red and they scurried away in a panic, looking around them nervously for any sign of green and silver apparel. Ronia, Teddy, and Parker all looked at one another.

"What was that spell you used?" Parker inquired.

"It was a Patronus charm," she said simply.

Both of them stared at her.

"What?" she asked. "You can't conjure a Patronus?"

"No, we can," Teddy said. "But not without speaking the incantation. You did it _nonverbally_."

"I practice hard," she said with a shrug. "Now let's get back towards the library, Abe's probably getting impatient."

…~oOo~…

"Way to make me wait forever!" Abe admonished once his friends arrived. "I was two minutes away from going and hunting for your bodies in the Forbidden Forest!"

Teddy rolled his eyes. "Please. We weren't gone all that long and what could we have done from the pitch to here that would get us killed?"

"I can think of a lot of things," Abe declared, picking a book off a shelf. "Top of the list being that one or both of you tried to hit on Ronia."

Ronia grinned and sat down in a wooden seat, propping her feet up on the study table that Abe often used. "Smart boy," she murmured. "Knows his boundaries." She shot pointed glare at Parker. During the practice, he had flown over to pat Ronia on the bum at least three times, earning her wrath every time.

"You look like hell, mate," Abe told Parker. "You're going to have one hell of a mouse for the week. How'd you get such a black eye?"

"Let's just say that in another life," Parker grumbled, "Ronia would've made a brilliant Beater."

Abe flashed a large, amused smile at this and turned to Ronia. "You really my dream girl, you know that?"

"Happy to fulfill your fantasies," Ronia said with a humble bow of her head.

"You said you have an idea?" Teddy prompted his intelligent friend.

Abe cleared his throat and said, "Yes, I do. So. For now we know that Gerard wants Freckles to steal from Slughorn and brew him a potion to do Merlin-knows-what. We also know that this potion cannot be prepared in time for their next meeting. As of now we are even unsure if Freckles will even agree to steal the needed ingredients. But if she does make the potion…we'll know."

"How?" Parker asked.

"By keeping a close eye on her, of course," Abe said. "We could _try_ to prevent the thievery, but it won't do us any good, now will it? We don't even know what the potion is or if it will work. So, we watch her, follow her, and if she makes the potion - which she probably will, considering how manipulative this Gerard bloke is - we let her."

"That sounds like a stupid plan," Parker remarked testily. "She'll be working with dangerous stuff! She could get herself killed!"

"Freckles is a big girl," Abe said, "and a smart one, at that. She's a fantastic potioneer as well, in case you haven't noticed - which I know _you_ haven't. She'll know how to make it and make it without killing herself.

"Our plan, however, is to let her brew the potion, watch her letters, and on the night that she plans to bring the potion to her ghostly boyfriend, we slip a bit of Dreamless Sleep into her tea before she goes and _we_ go in her stead."

Teddy leaned against a bookshelf and crossed his arms, deep in thought. "How do we do that?"

"Simple, really," Abe said brightly. "Polyjuice. Which so happens to take half as long to make as whatever deadly brew Freckles will make. We steal a few of her hairs, add it to the potion, one of us drink it, and replace her at the meeting place."

"Sounds easy enough," Ronia remarked tentatively. "But we don't know where the meeting place is. This 'Room' isn't on the Map."

"That is also an easy fix," Abe answered. "We follow her when she plans to meet him in a week or so. That way we know where it is and how to get there before I start making the Polyjuice. Simplicity," he said with a wide smile, "is the most brilliant of methods."

"What do we do until then?" Parker asked, obviously impatient to kill or re-kill his sister's boyfriend.

"We wait," Ronia said for Abe. "We bide our time, observe from afar, but we wait. Live life as normally as possible. We have a little more than a week until they plan to get together in the Room again." She looked over at Abe. "Do you need help brewing the Polyjuice?"

"The brewing itself is easy enough," he said. "However…I am lacking the ingredients, as of late…" He hesitated.

"What do you want me to do?" Ronia said readily.

Abe inquired innocently, "How practiced are you at thievery?"

"Fairly so."

"Then I know just how to get the ingredients we need."

…~oOo~…

That Thursday, Freckles frowned at the clothes she was being forced to wear. She fought and fought Abe on it, but he insisted, saying that going to a Slug Club dinner was more formal than the Great Hall.

Freckles wasn't in the room, she never was anymore, and Ronia slipped into the dress. Already she was longing for trousers and she hadn't even closed up the back of it yet. She twisted her arms to try and reach the buttons, but she could only get about two of them and there were a dozen more from her waist to the top of her back. She grunted, twisting and turning, trying to get at the buttons and making herself dizzy over it from spinning.

She'd been struggling for a good ten minutes when there was a knock on the door. It wasn't Freckles, she knew because the girl would have just come in and Abe said he would meet her in the common room in forty-five minutes. She called out, "Come in!"

In through the door walked Teddy and he stopped the moment he saw her.

Her dark brown and silver-streaked hair was being held out of her face with pearl-adorned pins and in her ears were a pair of matching pearl earrings.

And sheathing her body was a plain but pretty and very feminine light blue dress with a square neckline and cap-sleeves. It fit her body perfectly, not too tight or loose, and the cut of it enhanced her girlish figure, the slender waist, curved hips, and her perky breasts.

"I can smell you, you know," she said casually.

Teddy blushed very slightly and shrugged. "Oh well."

She smirked at him. "Would you be willing to do me a favor?"

He nodded.

"Button me up?" She turned around, showing him the gaping open back of the dress.

Hesitantly, Teddy raised his hands and started at the bottom where he could see the narrowest point of her hourglass figure and began fastening the buttons one by one. Feeling like the moment had a strange amount of intimacy, he tried not to touch her skin directly to avoid any further tension.

Because she was barefoot, Teddy saw the true difference in their heights. The top of her head only reached his chin - which for girls was impressive. Everyone said Teddy was built like his father. Very tall and lean, but wiry. So he figured for girl standards, she was more than average height.

Teddy hated how awkward he felt. No girl made him this awkward, not even Victoire when he first made a move on her. Only Ronia did this to him and it made him crazy.

_You're the son of a Marauder, for Merlin's sake! Do you even remember how you got Victoire to go out with you? You marched up to her with a cocky grin, grabbed her, and kissed her hard! No fear at all! But with this girl you can't even be in the same room as her without getting tongue-tied, you buffoon! _

Teddy listened to his conscience as he buttoned her and decided that it was right. He was being ridiculous.

When he got to the last button at the top of her back he didn't fasten it right away. Instead he took a deep breath, leaned forward and pressed his lips to the spot of bare skin there.

Ronia's breath hitched but went unnoticed by Teddy. She swallowed, her throat suddenly very dry, as she felt him close the last button. She let out a shaky breath quietly and turned around to face him. He didn't look very nervous, he just looked incredibly focused. Her heart began playing hopscotch with her ribs.

For the first time in her life, Ronia felt completely powerless.

Feeling the shift of power, Teddy reached his hand out to stroke her scarred cheek. He saw the barely perceptible flinch she gave, but didn't move his hand. The skin was rough and uneven under his fingers, bumpy.

"Do they repulse you?" she whispered. Her throat felt like a desert and no amount of swallowing was changing that.

Teddy shook his head slowly.

"Why?" she asked, her voice like sandpaper.

"Because," he said simply, running his thumb along the longest scar, "you're too beautiful to be repulsive."

When he bent down, Ronia closed her eyes and leaned forward. Their lips met in the middle, parted ever-so-slightly and she let out a content sigh. Teddy felt her hot breath brush his tongue and gave a small shiver, taking her lips more fully into his. Ronia's hands made their way to his shoulders, one sliding to the back of his neck. They kissed slowly, tenderly, his tongue running along her bottom lip, begging for entrance that she was ready to give.

The kisses were very different from the night in the library. While those made Ronia's blood run with fire and need, these sparked a deeper sort of hunger that hit her and ran through her with the sweetness and pace of molasses. The sensation hit her core deliciously as their tongues danced sensually. The hand of his that wasn't against her cheek was running down her side and ribs to her waist and her hip.

Ronia suddenly want his hands everywhere. Her skin was tingling and aching for it. Just as much, she wanted his hot skin under his fingers. Her hand went up his t-shirt and she explored his stomach and chest with gentle urgency. His stomach and chest were hard, the ridges of muscle floating beneath the surface. His skin was smooth and warm and she wanted so badly to running her mouth and teeth over it.

She tugged on his shirt in the manner of a question and he readily stripped it off. They came together again with a more potent desire, both of their breathing faster and kissing deeper. The heat was building between Ronia's legs as Teddy's tongue thoroughly explored her mouth. His hands took her hips firmly with his and pulled her in tightly. They fit together like the Yin and Yang symbol, like two puzzle pieces. His mouth moved from his mouth, down her jaw and to her throat.

"Oh, God…" she whimpered without realizing it. His teeth grazed over her pulse point and her hand gripped his hard shoulder just to keep herself from collapsing. Not as if he'd let her, of course, his hands were holding her so tight. She bit his ear playfully and murmured between breaths, "I know…you just buttoned it…but you need to undo my dress…_now_." The last word was a growl.

Her words did something to Teddy's head that made him lose his better sense. Normally he'd be smart enough to stop himself before it went too far, but not this time. His hands went to her back and hurried through the buttons.

Ronia shimmied out of the dress, letting it fall to her ankles, and Teddy hissed in a breath. He'd completely forgot about the discovery when he and Abe broke into the her room, but he was given a full reminder of it once the dress slipped off. Ronia didn't wear panties. And on top of that, she didn't wear a bra with that dress either.

With ease, she slid further into his chest, her supple and creamy breasts rubbing into his hot, bare chest. Her arms came up and twined around his neck like a vine as they stared into each other's eyes.

"I want you…" Ronia whispered, breathing in that potent and mind-numbing aroma that he carried with him like a cloud that had been torturing her for weeks.

"Are you sure about this?" Teddy asked.

"Yes," she confirmed.

With that, Teddy took his wand from his pocket, flicked it at the door, locking and warding it twice.

…~oOo~…

A/N. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!

~ So Long And Thanks For All The Fish ~


	12. Closet Heist

A/N. Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I've updated this story, but I promise I'll try to be more regular with it! I became very consumed with finishing Prisoner and updating The Last Marauder. For that I apologize.

I haven't mentioned in any of these chapters author notes - that's how long it's been - but I'm gonna be a mommmmyyyyyy! WOOHOO! Hehe

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter.

…~oOo~…

Chapter Twelve: Closet Heist

Sweaty and sated, Ronia was lying over top of Teddy as they lie on her bed. She'd been listening to his heart under her ear and enjoying his beautiful scent which was a blend of his usual aroma, sweat, her own scent, and arousal. It was something she could breathe in constantly and never tire of it. His hand was dancing over her back in feather-light shapes. Ronia wanted nothing more than to tear the sheet covering their bodies off and kiss him everywhere, taste him again and again.

But then she saw the time.

Ronia propped herself up and looked down at him. He looked back at her and they exchanged almost identical sheepish grins. He reached up to tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear. She leaned into his palm.

"I'm afraid," she said, "that you'll have to button my dress again."

"I'd be happy to," he said with a mischievous smile.

She gave him a teasingly firm look. "And it stays on this time, Lupin."

Teddy pouted and she laughed. They touched their foreheads together for an instant before she rolled off of him and the bed.

"You know," Teddy said with a smirk as he sat up and swung his legs out of the bed, "I don't know what kind of man I am for helping a girl I just slept with get ready to go to a party with another man."

Ronia let out a loud laugh and started looking for her lost earring in the sheets. "If you were better at potion-making, _you'd _be the one taking me to the Slug Club dinner, now wouldn't you be?" she teased.

Teddy pulled on his pants and conceded, "I suppose. Perhaps I should start working harder in Potions."

"Perhaps you should," she said with a chuckle. She slid her dress back on and waited for him to do up her back.

Teddy walked behind her, but instead of fastening the buttons, he began dragging his fingers lightly down her back. She shivered and scolded, "_Teddy!_"

He chuckled and did as she said, buttoning up the buttons like a good boy without touching her enticing skin.

In minutes Teddy learned how much Ronia was like a drug. He'd only had her once, just moments ago, but he was already craving her desperately.

"I can smell you, you know," she said, repeating the same thing she'd told him when he first came into the room - long before he ever imagined that those words could lead to the most amazing sex.

Only, Teddy couldn't help but admit that it had felt like more than just sex.

They had made love and that fact drove Teddy to the edge of his sanity. It was overwhelming how amazing and beautiful and sensual it had been.

Ronia found herself thinking the same thing. She mentally cursed Abe for being in the Slug Club because now she had to rush instead of just float in post-coital bliss and be held for a bit. But no. She had to go to a stupid fucking dinner and steal from her professor.

She really hated Hogwarts right then.

Teddy and Ronia walked down to the common room together. She was holding her stupid feminine ballet flats in her hand, waiting until the very last moment to put them on.

Abe was leaning against the wall next to the common room exit, arms crossed and eyes closed like he wished he was asleep. He opened his eyes when he heard the two sets of footfalls.

"What took you so long?" Abe asked curiously. "Teddy said he was heading up to see how you were an hour ago. What'd you guys do, have a nice heavy snog?" he teased, giving an amused snort.

Ronia remained as deadpan as she always was, but Teddy's eyes got wide.

Abe froze. "You're kidding. Did you?" he demanded, obviously not believing it.

Teddy's hair turned platinum white.

"In fact, we did, and more than that, actually," Ronia said simply, as if she were talking about the weather. "Not that it's any of your business. But we're running late, so let's go."

So abruptly that he barely saw it coming, Ronia grabbed Teddy by the back of his hair and pulled him into for a hard, quick kiss before she turned and walked out of the common room.

Abe was petrified where he stood. "Did that really just happen, or am I having one of those weird dreams again?"

Teddy felt his eyebrows come together. "You have dreams of Ronia and me kissing?"

Abe's cheeks turned red. "No," he answered unconvincingly.

"Pervert. Just go to the party and make sure Ronia doesn't get in trouble. If she gets caught, I'm blaming you, you understand?"

"Look at you acting all possessive and protective," Abe said mockingly. "Wait until Parker finds out." His smile was a mix between the excitement of a child and sinister like an evil clown. He started backing towards the portrait, still wearing the manic smile.

Teddy was saying quickly, "You say a single word to Parker, I swear to Merlin -"

But Abe was already out the portrait and in the corridor.

Leaning against the stone wall was Ronia, waiting calmly, her eyes half-shut. She was tired after her and Teddy's rigorous…ahem…activities. She smiled to herself softly, enjoying a moment to remember how wonderful his body had felt on hers. So warm and soft and hard at the same time…

"I'm sorry to interrupt what no doubt are sexual fantasies about one of my best mates," Abe said, "but we really should be going."

Ronia just nodded and followed Abe in silence for a long while.

Finally, Abe asked, "Are you going to tell me what happened in that bedroom?"

"I won't be telling you anything you haven't already speculated," she answered him emotionlessly.

"True," Abe granted, "but still, a confirmation would be nice."

"I'm sure Teddy will tell you every sweaty detail once you return to your room tonight."

"But he won't, though," Abe persisted. "Not when Parker's around. So I need the information from the only other person who can give me it: You. Please, Ronia, I'm dying of curiosity here."

Ronia sighed heavily. What was the point? "Teddy and I, as you Englishmen say it, 'shagged'."

Abe punched the air victoriously and jumped in excitement. "I knew it! Shit! That's brilliant!"

"And why is it brilliant?" Ronia inquired, raising the eyebrow that was sliced in half.

"Because…well…really, whenever my mates or I have sex it's brilliant. It doesn't matter if it happened to us or not, we get excited about our friends getting laid."

Her brow furrowed. "Why?"

"That is actually a very good question, one that I do not have an answer to. Evolution, I suppose. Hormones, maybe." Abe shrugged. "Men are weird, what can I say?"

Ronia was inclined to agree.

…~oOo~…

Ronia was quick to realize that the Slug Club was not just for talented potioneers. Not at all. It was almost like a Quidditch card collection - the most valuable players in the deck being put out on display. It made sense, though. Slughorn was a Slytherin - which meant ambition and cunning. Horace Slughorn wanted connections and the best way to do that was through powerful people's children.

Even Ronia felt like a China doll the way Slughorn was examining her while at the round table in his office. Abe was chatting to her right with a pretty Hufflepuff named Eloise about Amortentia - some kind of wizarding pick-up like he must have heard somewhere - and Ronia sat ramrod straight, prepared for anything.

Including a brawl with her half-brother who sat across the table from her.

Ronia became distracted when Slughorn said in his jolly voice, "Miss Vargstrom, I'm so happy that Mr. Collin asked for you to join tonight's diner. I have no clue why I did not think of inviting you before, you're definitely a special person, aren't you?"

Taking in a deep breath, Ronia tried not to smirk. Horace Slughorn smelt like fear. Something told her that he wasn't exactly thrilled with her…condition. If she wasn't a werewolf, he would have asked her into the Slug Club the moment she stepped foot in Hogwarts just because she was from Durmstrang. But she was half-monster and he hated that.

Ronia made a mental note to use his fear as an advantage.

"Thank you, Professor," she said cordially.

"And now I have both Vargstroms in my little club!" Slughorn chuckle to disguise his intimidation.

Loki and Ronia Vargstrom exuded power. There was no mistake about that. And having both of them in such a small room was overwhelming, even if they just sat and stared. Their presence was tangible, making it one of the most solemn Slug Club dinners Horace had seen since Tom Riddle himself came through.

"Tell us all, what is your home country like?" Slughorn asked the both of them.

Loki and Ronia exchanged quick glances.

"Cold winters," Loki intoned.

"And…warm summers," Ronia added emotionlessly.

Abe gave her a look like "could you _try_ to be charming for three seconds?" She did not acknowledge him.

"I see, I see," Slughorn said slowly. "Now, I'm curious. Why is it that you attended different schools for so long?"

"That really is an uninteresting story…" Loki was quick to dismiss.

"Actually, I disagree," Ronia said, her face still expressionless but her eyes holding mischief. "But if you are uncomfortable…then we need not discuss it."

"It's not my comfort I'm concerned with, it's keeping everyone from falling asleep in their dinners," Loki said tersely. "It is _very _boring."

"Don't be worried about us, lad!" Slughorn said with a wide smile. "Tell us the tale!"

"As a young boy, Loki was very…timid," Ronia said, the left corner of her mouth twitched into a dry half-smirk.

The look Loki gave her would have halted an entire herd of raging Hippogriffs.

"He expressed a great deal of…concern about attending a school as stern as Durmstrang," Ronia continued.

Abe let out a loud bark of a laugh. "Little Loki was scared?"

"To put it lightly," Ronia confirmed.

A round of giggles passed through the rest of the guests while Loki looked murderous, his hand gripping his fork so tightly his knuckles turned white.

"So Father sent him to Hogwarts," Ronia concluded casually, paying no attention to her brother's glowers. "And I went to Durmstrang. It was very difficult for us to be separated…wasn't Loki?" She said it calmly, but the discreet jest was apparent.

Loki swallowed and composed himself, refusing to rise to the bait. "And we've been reunited once again," he said tonelessly. "All because of Eastern Europe's little issue with _werewolves_."

He said the word with deliberate slowness, making everyone's smiles fall as they remembered that the girl sitting at dinner with them was no completely human.

"Indeed," Ronia replied. "A blessing and curse."

Each and every word they said was as strategic as a chess match. Words were only one part of this game - these siblings played mind games. Their strategies were merciless and their words were civil.

Finally, as the air grew icy around everyone, Slughorn cleared his throat and gleefully announced, "Dessert time, I suppose!"

"Excuse me," Ronia said, standing gracefully from her seat. "I must…powder my nose." The words sounded sort of comical coming from her, but no one dared laugh or protest.

"Oh, Ronia," Abe said just as she was about to walk away. "Best not forget your purse." He bent down and lifted the small bag from the ground and held it out to her.

"Thank you," she stated before striding out, the bag clutched in her hand.

Slughorn's private storage of potion ingredients was in the classroom which was currently locked. Slughorn, though, was not clever enough to properly ward the door, so she flicked her wand with a silent _Alohamora_ and slid inside. She Disillusioned herself for good measure while she was snooping around.

The stores were easy enough to un-ward and walk into. She pulled the parchment Abe made for her from her pocket and began plucking objects from the shelves and placing them into her bag. Abe had cast a clever little Undetectable Extension Charm on it so that everything would fit, inspired by a story James told them about his Aunt Hermione.

Then Ronia caught a whiff of a peculiar smell. Like over-priced shampoo and salt.

Loki had been in this room, very recently. Probably less than an hour ago.

She remembered at the start of the meal, her brother had taken a bit longer in the bathroom than usual and smirked to herself. So. Loki had been poking around as well - no wonder the wards on both the classroom and storage doors were weak.

She sniffed around until she pinpointed the things he touched directly. Mandrake root…Ashwinder eggs…and a selection of other interesting ingredients. She did the equation in her head and let out a laugh.

Her brother was brewing a Lust Potion, and to be more specific, Aphrodesia.

Leaving the room and then exiting the classroom, she put up better wards, the ones a teacher would use, and laughed to herself.

Boys were such idiots.

…~oOo~…

The three boys were all laughing hysterically. Ronia was leaning against the dresser in their room and watching them crack up. Parker literally fell of his bed and began actually rolling on the floor in his mirth. These boys were ridiculous, Ronia thought. But interesting to be around.

"Why…" Teddy finally managed to say through his cackles, "is your brother…making a Lust Potion?"

"Is he that desperate for a shag?" Abe laughed.

Parker still couldn't breathe.

"Alright, alright!" Ronia said, smirking. "I get it! For some reason Loki's lack of a romantic life amuses all of you! Now quiet down, you sound like a bunch of hyenas."

Teddy and Abe calmed down, and Parker did but just barely. He kept chuckling to himself and grinning like mad. What a dork.

"I'm going to bed now," Ronia said. "I've had a very exhausting day."

Teddy smiled smugly at that. She rolled her eyes at him as she turned to walk out.

"I'll go down with you," Teddy said casually. "I left a book in the common room."

"Yeah," Abe said with a grin. "A 'book'."

Good thing Parker had absolutely no sensitivity to subtlety. The boy would be oblivious even if a truck with the word "INNUENDO" painted on the side drove past him.

Teddy and Ronia walked down the common room. It was minutes before curfew and everyone was showering or in their rooms. They stopped in front of the stairs up to the girls dormitories. Ronia leaned against the wall and sent him a coy look. He smiled.

"You know…" Teddy said slowly, taking another step toward her. "I could teach you that charm to turn me into a rat. And Freckles doesn't come back to your room for another three hours." Their noses were now an inch apart.

"What are you implying, Lupin?" Ronia purred.

Teddy had no clue why but something about when she used his surname sent pleasant heat to his boxers. "I'm implying that it would be very easy for me to slip on up to your room for the night…and what happens then is completely up to you," he whispered, grinning.

"Oh, you should know better than to give me that kind of free reign," she said with sultry teasing. "I might have you in lady's underwear and roped to the headboard."

"Funny," Teddy said with a smile. "That's what I had in mind for you."

"There's only one little problem with that, though," Ronia said. She leaned up to Teddy's ear and said, "_I don't wear underwear_."

Teddy whispered back with a smoldering smile, "_I know_."


End file.
